Previous post noted that:
Who's to blame?... forchild-labor laws?
the Pure Food & Drug Act?
the 40-hr, 5-day work-week?
women's suffrage?
the Civil Rights Movement?
Pinko, commie, muckraking liberals and progressives! - that's who... including socialist, God-hating labor unions!!!
David Neiwert over at
Crooks & Liars takes Glenn Beck to task, using similar examples. Here's a sample:
The United States has always been an essentially capitalist economic system. However, we have experienced periods in our history where this system has seriously malfunctioned, and we've made adjustments accordingly that have largely worked well making things better.
One of those dysfunctional periods came at about the turn of the last century, when McKinley was president, corrupt robber barons ran Congress, and the latter-day version of "strict constructionists" ruled the courts. "Laissez faire" capitalism ruled, and America was functionally an oligarchy.
Squeezed out were the working people: the average workweek was 80 hours, there were no weekends, no vacation, only a few holidays, and the barest minimum of pay. Benefits and health care were unheard of. Child labor was the rule.
What happened between then and now? "Progressives" began agitating for better working conditions, and began organizing as labor unions. After a long period of violent repression, these reforms gradually became government policy -- especially in the 1930s under FDR. Americans began getting 40-hour work weeks with weekends off, paid vacations and benefits.
... But go read the whole thing!
What happened back at the end of the golden age was the people forced the State to open fire, and when it did, it threw the legitimacy of the State into doubt. It had to compromise with the dissidents to restore its monopoly. Hence, the 5-day/40-hour week, vacations, health care benefits, etc.
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Preach on Brother Russ, preach on.
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