[manarth]

  "did any other market complain about worker safety or abuse or pollution and refuse to buy products?"

Pre-industrial revolution, living conditions were pretty poor working conditions were pretty poor life expectancy was pretty poor, so it wasn't exactly making things worse. Despite all the problems caused by industrialisation, it was still a net positive.

Now that we've progressed through industrialisation to a point where life expectancy has dramatically improved, along with living conditions and all the rest, it's given us a point of comparison.

Countries that are going through an industrialisation phase aren't being criticised in comparison to a pre-industrialisation state, they're being criticised in comparison to what other post-industrialised countries have achieved. Sure, it's an unfair comparison, but the first time around, that comparison didn't exist.