Well, it’s not so much that, as the marginal behavior was a bit more honest, industrious, frugal, even happier. That excess effort and economy provided the capital to not only maintain what previous generations built, but build more.
Now we don’t seem able to build much, nor maintain what we have. How can that be when supposedly the self esteem factories tell us we’ve never been so well educated( dumbed down standardized app tests aside )
Because nothing, but nothing, beats the business appeal of dirt-cheap, rock-bottom labor.
Beating people to death in their pay packets and driving them down the ladder of existence is one of the biggest, fattest, margin-plumpingest, ego-chuffingest perks available in the world of business. It's beyond catnip. It's just the cat's ass and the bee's knees. You will never, ever get businessmen to leave that alone, no more than you'll stop old Chinese fat guys from buying girls' virginities, rhino horns, and tiger bones.
Screwing your employees is corner-office Viagra. A lot of office Napoleons would tip out to management and work for free.