> I mean, Luddites had the exact same kind of fear about the steam machines, yet the conditions of the workers have significantly improved with the industrial revolution.
No, what actually happened is decades of declines in the safety and material condition of workers, children forced into factories, organization and violent rebellion by labor unions, and a peace carved out with mass enfranchisement, the formation of working class political parties, and the passage of labor laws. People who say this kind of stuff always have a “draw the rest of the owl” conception of history.
Funnily enough, there was also a corollary movement to the Luddites in France that almost no one knows about because a. they won more of these battles b. French workers did not face as much of a decline in their standard of living as English workers did in the same period as a result.
No, what actually happened is decades of declines in the safety and material condition of workers, children forced into factories, organization and violent rebellion by labor unions, and a peace carved out with mass enfranchisement, the formation of working class political parties, and the passage of labor laws. People who say this kind of stuff always have a “draw the rest of the owl” conception of history.
Funnily enough, there was also a corollary movement to the Luddites in France that almost no one knows about because a. they won more of these battles b. French workers did not face as much of a decline in their standard of living as English workers did in the same period as a result.