It is interesting how often technological development is at the root of our ills. You cited television and the pill as two excellent examples. Labor unions are a rejection in many ways of the huge gains of efficiency and productivity of machines and technology. We didn’t have these problems when we were an agrarian society, 93% of us lived on the farm, and it was a constant struggle to avoid starvation. Unions aligned themselves with communists against capitalism.
Unions are an interesting case. For them I actually agree that it was THE MAN that created them...by simply looking at dead and maimed workers as nothing more than a machine that breaks down. THE MAN asked for it...and safety standards were needed.
But we are TOTAL WIMPS in what we allowed them to become. It’s hard to believe, but after Pearl Harbor FDR had to BRIBE union leaders to load cargo ships - the unions should have been DESTROYED at that moment, but they served a political purpose and still do. Get rid of them and this country would see a 10 point swing to towards Republicans in just about every election.