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We are long past that, and it wasn't so great anyway.

I understand that we are long past that, but it certainly was at least somewhat better than what we've got now, right?

Really? Got to an old Company Town. You know, the kind that Teddy Roosevelt helped break up.

For instance, in Dubuque Iowa (I just visited there so it is fresh in my mind), there are a lot of old Company row houses built by the local business to house workers.

Those workers were paid in script, not money. You could only use the script in a company store. Basically, it was borderline slavery. Now they were treated much better than say a slave in the old South, but they didn't have near the freedom we do now.

Now there was some great opportunities in other places. My great grandfather came from Germany, worked as a hired hand, and later built up enough money to buy a homestead. My family still has roots to that farm. But to say that all was so much better in the past is wrong.

Someone on this thread (forgive me I can't remember who, was it you A.Pole?) mentioned William Jennings Bryan. Old Billy was a Nebraskan who saw just how many of the working class we being used, and tried to implement some changes to help them out. While I don't agree with many of his suggested solutions, those problems existed. Worker exploitation and child labor were pretty standard. I can't honestly say that it was uniformly better at all. While men like my great grandfather did great, most of the factory workers were working in conditions like you wouldn't believe.

When Teddy R. broke the coal company strikes and worked to dissolve some of the monopolies, the owners and businessmen said the same thing that many of the Total Free Traders say today. When he cracked down on some of the union riots, he was likewise accused of being to elitist.

but it certainly was at least somewhat better than what we've got now, right?

Yup; back then we would just lop the king's head off. Today we build them a library and put them on a speaking tour.