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by rainsford 30 days ago
Government regulation around conditions of employment has a very long history, because "the market" has a long history of producing things like Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire when it's allowed to.

While in theory the market punishes bad employers by making people not want to work for them, the reality is that for all but the most in-demand individuals, the power asymmetry between an individual and their employer is such that some level of government regulation is probably needed to maintain reasonable working conditions. You could certainly argue whether regulating this particular thing is a good idea or not of course.

1 comments

Broadly agreed. But the triangle shirtwaist factory is about as far from "my boss calls me and it's stressful" as one can get! I'm disappointed that a some activists can inflict their preference for comfort on all of us.