" but looking around the world the numbers aren't much better"

? Qataris use indentured servitude, paying subsistence wages, forcibly holding passports and people in work conditions, not letting them leave, no access to healthcare, making workers 'pay for their debt' of the 'flight from India to Qatar'.

So this is not remotely any kind of basis of comparison for 'why we have a hard time making bridges'.

Japan has a different attitude, they're able to 'make stuff safely' but it's a different culture.