[FLT-bird]

You’re talking about my grandparents. They moved west and found land to homestead. They did fine.

I'm glad to hear things worked out for them. Things did not work out for many. Look at the death rates (often due to disease due to the very unsanitary living conditions in crowded cities in the East). Look at the death rates and the number of people left mangled and crippled in industrial accidents in the early to mid 19th century. Tort law developed at the time for this reason. There was simply no compensation for people left mangled before that....the same goes with OSHA, Child Labor laws, etc etc. I'm as dedicated a free market guy as anyone, but the abuses of labor by corporate fatcats at the time was just awful and eventually sparked a fierce backlash.

[GranTorino]

It was worse in the countries they left.
My Great Grandmother lost seven infant’s before immigrating.
Times were tough everywhere.

[Ditto]

Look at the death rates (often due to disease due to the very unsanitary living conditions in crowded cities in the East).

Ok…what were the death rates. Do you know? Was it really that bad?

[paudio]

That’s the consequences of the coming industrial age on social/ labor conditions that did not exist before. The Britta only had modern labor law in 1830s and 1840s, around the same time Fair Labor Standard Acts in the US.