Letters to the Editor
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How Did The Middle Class Arise In The Early 1900's??
What you fail to realize is that most, not to say all, of the material gains made between 1850 and 1950 were the result of an astonishing creation of wealth that underwrote the lifestyles that our grandparents came to enjoy.
Only by regulating businesses and regulating the economy did life in America improve.
It's regulations that, generally, keep the banks from failing!
The reason banks don't fail as regularly as they did in 1902 isn't because government "stayed out of it" -- but specifically because they got involved!
The reason we don't have another Dust Bowl is because our government basically took an active role is managing our land resources!
The reason we are no longer sold spolied meat isn't because government "backed off" and left the meat industry totally unregulated -- it was the exact opposite!
The reason people were healthier AFTER government regulation and oversight of the meat industry is exactyl because the government stopped them from selling rotten meat!
The reason people earned a decent wage and had safety equipment was specifically because the government demanded it!
Do you seriously not see the connection?
Let me break it down like this:
1900-1929 was no government regulations = life sucks
1930-present was growing government oversight = life continually got better.
This doesn't mean that more government is always better -- but the Ron Paul's of the world seem (sorry) deeply ignorant of how government saved us from the nightmare created by the robber barons.
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The nature of government action...
Let's look at the other side of Anonymous's questions:
How exactly was child factory labor started?
Government action (in the UK, the enclosure movement and the poor laws).
How exactly was slavery defended?
Government action (who pursued escaped slaves? who hung John Brown?).
"How were fair labor and wage guarantees created in this country?"
They weren't, but unions were far more effective than government was. Unions are often loyal to their members; government is by its nature loyal to the capitalist class.
"How were consumers protected from purchasing spoiled meats and toxic snake-oil medicine?"
We aren't. But the government does take the effort to enforce repatents of long-known medicine, to keep the prices from falling.
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Ugh. LOTS more to environment than pollution
Not a single word about biodiversity. Not a peep about endangered species.
I suppose, being Ron Paul, that he thinks people actually OWN Bald Eagles or wolves or Grizzly Bears or Condors or frogs or...the list is huge and growing...and that the OWNERS of these unownable creatures will be responsible for keeping them from being wiped out by greedy libertarians out for a buck by paving their land for a housing development.
Tip to the author of this piece: the environment is MUCH bigger than pollution.
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anonymous
You can't redistribute what doesn't exist. Even radical wealth redistribution in 1900 would have accomplished very little to help the poor, because there just wasn't enough wealth to redistribute.
It was only after Capitalism created the wealth and capital needed to produce what we want and need, that we could get what we want and need.
Child labor ended when families could earn enough to support the kids without their work. Increased worker productivity through captial investment had more to do with this than did gov't regulation.
Also cutting off immigration and allowing capital to catch up with labor had more to do with rising wages than government regulation.
You simply refuse to understand that the gilded age was one of massive influx and surplus of labor and not much capital to speak of. It was also a time of great poverty relative to now. Not because of laisez faire, because stuff hadn't been built yet.
It was changing the proportions between capital and labor that allowed workers to live better.
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Capitalism Didn't Magically "Create" A Better Standard
You can't redistribute what doesn't exist. Even radical wealth redistribution in 1900 would have accomplished very little to help the poor, because there just wasn't enough wealth to redistribute.
Your arguement is that child labor ended -- not because of government laws -- but simply because families earned more and didn't need to employ their childrent o survive?
Well, no.
I'm sorry but that is simply dead wrong. Child labor only ended when the government created laws prohibiting it.
You seem to be under the (deeply misguided) impression that the meat industry magically and on their own accord all decided amongst themselves (at the same time no less) to stop selling rotten meat to people -- just cuz. I guess they all found Jesus at the same time?
Nope. Sorry, but that improvement to the quality of our lives only occurred because the government forced them to stop selling rotten meat!
Your interesting take on history is that all the imporvements we currently enjoy had nothing whatsoever to do with government regulations.
This is, at the least, one of the most creative things I've ever heard.
What's true is that the vast majority of improvements we citizens currently enjoy came about because government forced those improvements depsite the protests of business owners.
They fought against the child labor law.
They fought against the fair wages and over time law.
They fought every single environmental law that has ever been proposed going back to pre-1900 for crying out loud!
The reason life is good in the US now is because the government forced companies to obey a higher standard.
My goodness. Are you pulling my leg? I think you were joking and I just didn't get it.
No modern America could seriously believe that Child Labor ended simply because it was no longer necessary (financially) for a family to employ their children!
ha ha!
Wait....you aren't serious are you?
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One More Thing....
It was changing the proportions between capital and labor that allowed workers to live better.
I think most people would make the arguement that it was wage protections, overtime pay and worker safety laws created by and enforced by the government that significantly improved workers lives.
Better wages, shorter hours and safer working conditions improved the quality of life for our citizens.
These changes only occured because the government forced them to occur despite the loud protests of company owners who insisted the government had no authority to tell them what to do.
Thank God the Progressives won.