[j16sdiz]

We have gone a long way since industrial revolution.

e.g.

Child labor now outlawed.

There is a minimum wage. (You can argue it is still way to low, but going from zero to some is a huge change)

Some OSHA rules mandate employer provide safety equipment.

[dofm]

> Child labor now outlawed.

For now. Many US states are currently trying to roll back these laws though, aren't they?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/22/child-labor-...

https://www.justiceatwork.com/how-are-child-labor-laws-chang...

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-several-states-are-pus...

[inigyou]

What you described is the result of the government acting as one big, but very conservative, union.

[unknownfuture]

Literally demonstrating the point in dofm's second paragraph right here...

[dofm]

Thank you. Almost all of the US discourse around unions seems to involve accepting the literally cartoonish framing that the US corporate right managed to force into popular culture.

The fact that union culture in the USA is broken is not a problem with the idea of unions. It's a problem with the USA.

[unknownfuture]

Honestly it's hard to blame folks. The US (and Canada, where I'm from) has seen a 40+ year concerted effort to destroy unions and the propaganda runs deep. There's been a long-running cultural project to depict unions as purely lazy, corrupt, and self-dealing. That same project also involved demonizing social safety nets ("welfare queen") and public projects more broadly using the exact same rhetoric: some people might cheat so we must tear these systems down. It's a language that directs the anger of the aggrieved away from those in power toward those who are powerless, and for nearly a half a century it's been wildly successful.