"Robber Barons" were the heroes of the Industrial Revolution and unions were the villains.

[Lesh]

SO Teddy Roosevelt was a Marxist huh?

 

[bripat9643]

SO Teddy Roosevelt was a Marxist huh?

The progressives were heavily influenced by Karl Marx, moron.

 

[initforme]

Luckily the work ethic and productivity of today's workers far exceeds the work ethics back then. As each generation is more productive than the previous we won't ever go back to the days of miserable awful conditions for basically no pay.

 

[ABikerSailor]

It was funny how those Robber Barrons would hire thugs to beat up people trying to organize

They hired security to keep union thugs off of their property. Unions beat up people every single day, moron. You are obviously totally ignorant about union violence.

They hired armies of thugs and the local police to beat down organized labor

You mean they used private security and local police to defend their property. The Wiki entry admits the union thugs "seized the town." They also seized the steel mill. They were thugs. Carnegie had a right to use force against them.

Do you actually believe that thugs have a right to seize private property? Do they have a right to use violence against people who are simply trying to go to work?

You mean the same Carnegie who after he made his fortune decided to become a philanthropist and gave away almost 90 percent of his fortune to building libraries and the like? The one who said "The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced."

 

[Edgetho]

The hard working entrepreneurs of the Industrial Revolution spurred innovation and productivity on a scale never before seen. America became more prosperous during that time, not less. It wasn't until a whiny bunch of malcontents and political activists insisted on disrupting progress that we felt the need to over-regulate things and tax the population into equality, destroying incentive and making America more appealing to freeloaders, rather than hard working individuals. Once government became more involved, they had to raise taxes in order to fund their influence. Government subsidies wouldn't exist if the government had no money to pay for them or power to implement them. We do not need government picking winners and losers. The free market itself takes care of that. It should be about survival of the fittest, not the most politically connected.

Rather than holding the entrepreneurs up as shining examples of hard work, ingenuity, and productivity, we are taught to malign them as greedy, immoral oppressors. They actually provide opportunities to the working man. They can only succeed by innovation and providing products that consumers want to purchase with their hard earned money. Every transaction is voluntary. You volunteer to trade a day of work for a day of pay. You then voluntarily trade some of your earnings for products that you wish to purchase. This puts money back into the economy. The voluntary nature of each transaction is not present when it comes to taxation and government mandates.

We have also been misled regarding labor unions. Labor unions are not the benefactors of the working man. They promote complacency and artificial equality, often protecting slackers, rather than encouraging rugged individualism and exceptional performance. I was in a union for five years and have seen this firsthand.

Unions were a necessary component of the Industrial Revolution.

They outlived their usefulness in the 1980's and have devolved into a nuisance

The Hostess Company

What Saved Hostess And Twinkies: Automation And Firing 95% Of The Union Workforce

 

[ABikerSailor]

Here's an example of WHY the garment industry unions started to form.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire - Wikipedia

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history.[1] The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers – 123 women and 23 men[2] – who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Italian and Jewish immigrant women aged 14 to 23;[3][4][5] of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was 43-year-old Providenza Panno, and the youngest were 14-year-olds Kate Leone and Rosaria "Sara" Maltese.[6]

The factory was located on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Asch Building, at 23–29 Washington Place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The 1901 building still stands today and is known as the Brown Building. It is part of and owned by New York University.[7]

Because the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked[8][1] (a then-common practice to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft),[9] many of the workers who could not escape from the burning building jumped from the high windows. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.

 

[Edgetho]

Here's an example of WHY the garment industry unions started to form.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire - Wikipedia

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history.[1] The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers – 123 women and 23 men[2] – who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Italian and Jewish immigrant women aged 14 to 23;[3][4][5] of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was 43-year-old Providenza Panno, and the youngest were 14-year-olds Kate Leone and Rosaria "Sara" Maltese.[6]

The factory was located on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Asch Building, at 23–29 Washington Place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The 1901 building still stands today and is known as the Brown Building. It is part of and owned by New York University.[7]

Because the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked[8][1] (a then-common practice to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft),[9] many of the workers who could not escape from the burning building jumped from the high windows. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.

1911 was One Hundred and Eight years ago.

Try to keep up

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

The hard working entrepreneurs of the Industrial Revolution spurred innovation and productivity on a scale never before seen. America became more prosperous during that time, not less. It wasn't until a whiny bunch of malcontents and political activists insisted on disrupting progress that we felt the need to over-regulate things and tax the population into equality, destroying incentive and making America more appealing to freeloaders, rather than hard working individuals. Once government became more involved, they had to raise taxes in order to fund their influence. Government subsidies wouldn't exist if the government had no money to pay for them or power to implement them. We do not need government picking winners and losers. The free market itself takes care of that. It should be about survival of the fittest, not the most politically connected.

Rather than holding the entrepreneurs up as shining examples of hard work, ingenuity, and productivity, we are taught to malign them as greedy, immoral oppressors. They actually provide opportunities to the working man. They can only succeed by innovation and providing products that consumers want to purchase with their hard earned money. Every transaction is voluntary. You volunteer to trade a day of work for a day of pay. You then voluntarily trade some of your earnings for products that you wish to purchase. This puts money back into the economy. The voluntary nature of each transaction is not present when it comes to taxation and government mandates.

We have also been misled regarding labor unions. Labor unions are not the benefactors of the working man. They promote complacency and artificial equality, often protecting slackers, rather than encouraging rugged individualism and exceptional performance. I was in a union for five years and have seen this firsthand.

You’re a ridiculous troll – and not very good at it.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Here's an example of WHY the garment industry unions started to form.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire - Wikipedia

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history.[1] The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers – 123 women and 23 men[2] – who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Italian and Jewish immigrant women aged 14 to 23;[3][4][5] of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was 43-year-old Providenza Panno, and the youngest were 14-year-olds Kate Leone and Rosaria "Sara" Maltese.[6]

The factory was located on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Asch Building, at 23–29 Washington Place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The 1901 building still stands today and is known as the Brown Building. It is part of and owned by New York University.[7]

Because the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked[8][1] (a then-common practice to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft),[9] many of the workers who could not escape from the burning building jumped from the high windows. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.

1911 was One Hundred and Eight years ago.

Try to keep up

Guess you missed the underlined part, because that is where it says that the Shirtwaist fire was the reason for the formation of the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union.

 

[Meathead]

The hard working entrepreneurs of the Industrial Revolution spurred innovation and productivity on a scale never before seen. America became more prosperous during that time, not less. It wasn't until a whiny bunch of malcontents and political activists insisted on disrupting progress that we felt the need to over-regulate things and tax the population into equality, destroying incentive and making America more appealing to freeloaders, rather than hard working individuals. Once government became more involved, they had to raise taxes in order to fund their influence. Government subsidies wouldn't exist if the government had no money to pay for them or power to implement them. We do not need government picking winners and losers. The free market itself takes care of that. It should be about survival of the fittest, not the most politically connected.

Rather than holding the entrepreneurs up as shining examples of hard work, ingenuity, and productivity, we are taught to malign them as greedy, immoral oppressors. They actually provide opportunities to the working man. They can only succeed by innovation and providing products that consumers want to purchase with their hard earned money. Every transaction is voluntary. You volunteer to trade a day of work for a day of pay. You then voluntarily trade some of your earnings for products that you wish to purchase. This puts money back into the economy. The voluntary nature of each transaction is not present when it comes to taxation and government mandates.

We have also been misled regarding labor unions. Labor unions are not the benefactors of the working man. They promote complacency and artificial equality, often protecting slackers, rather than encouraging rugged individualism and exceptional performance. I was in a union for five years and have seen this firsthand.

In the cultural Revolution the lefties/state were the cool guys and the middle class were the villains. Idealists always suck.

 

[bripat9643]

It was funny how those Robber Barrons would hire thugs to beat up people trying to organize

They hired security to keep union thugs off of their property. Unions beat up people every single day, moron. You are obviously totally ignorant about union violence.

They hired armies of thugs and the local police to beat down organized labor

You mean they used private security and local police to defend their property. The Wiki entry admits the union thugs "seized the town." They also seized the steel mill. They were thugs. Carnegie had a right to use force against them.

Do you actually believe that thugs have a right to seize private property? Do they have a right to use violence against people who are simply trying to go to work?

You mean the same Carnegie who after he made his fortune decided to become a philanthropist and gave away almost 90 percent of his fortune to building libraries and the like? The one who said "The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced."

Yes, that Carnegie. What's your point?

 

[bripat9643]

Here's an example of WHY the garment industry unions started to form.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire - Wikipedia

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history.[1] The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers – 123 women and 23 men[2] – who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Italian and Jewish immigrant women aged 14 to 23;[3][4][5] of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was 43-year-old Providenza Panno, and the youngest were 14-year-olds Kate Leone and Rosaria "Sara" Maltese.[6]

The factory was located on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Asch Building, at 23–29 Washington Place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The 1901 building still stands today and is known as the Brown Building. It is part of and owned by New York University.[7]

Because the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked[8][1] (a then-common practice to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft),[9] many of the workers who could not escape from the burning building jumped from the high windows. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.

Why isn't there a nuclear workers union in Russia since Chernobyl?

 

[Daryl Hunt]

It was funny how those Robber Barrons would hire thugs to beat up people trying to organize

Worse than that. State Governors would send in their Guards (also known as state Militia) and take over the local governments and police if they didn't agree with the Employers which often happened. Sometimes they would create a hazardous situation that way when none existed before. Even at the point of firing on peaceful strikers. This went on well into the first half of the 20th century in some areas.

In 1946, Westinghouse was called on by workers to stand by the promises they made during the war for wages after the war at their Appliance Manufacturing Plants. It seems, Westinghouse paid their workers slave wages during the war for the good of the Nation. Since Westinghouse and GE refused to follow through with the promises, the workers unionized and struck. The Governor at one state wanted to send in the National Guard to quell the strike. Truman stated that he would stop it by Federalizing the National Guard and send them in to protect the Workers. The Companies settled.

 

[bripat9643]

It was funny how those Robber Barrons would hire thugs to beat up people trying to organize

Worse than that. State Governors would send in their Guards (also known as state Militia) and take over the local governments and police if they didn't agree with the Employers which often happened.

You mean if they failed to protect the property rights of employers and the rights of non-union workers not to be beaten. What you douchebags are so desperately trying to deflect from is the fact that the union members were the thugs. They trespassed on private property and assaulted anyone who dared to work for an employer they were striking against.

Sometimes they would create a hazardous situation that way when none existed before. Even at the point of firing on peaceful strikers. This went on well into the first half of the 20th century in some areas.

The union thugs created the hazardous situation. Tresspassing on private property and beating people up is not what "peaceful strikers" do.

In 1946, Westinghouse was called on by workers to stand by the promises they made during the war for wages after the war at their Appliance Manufacturing Plants. It seems, Westinghouse paid their workers slave wages during the war for the good of the Nation. Since Westinghouse and GE refused to follow through with the promises, the workers unionized and struck. The Governor at one state wanted to send in the National Guard to quell the strike. Truman stated that he would stop it by Federalizing the National Guard and send them in to protect the Workers. The Companies settled.

Westinghouse was bound by wartime wage and price controls, dumbass. Truman was also a thug on the wrong side of the law. He should have been impeached for violating the Constitution.

 

[RandomPoster]

Ever heard of the Herrin massacre? Replacement workers were surrounded at gunpoint. They surrendered. Union thigs marched them to town, made them strip and crawl through the streets, took them out to the woods, and gunned them down.

"The strikebreakers sent out a mine guard, Bernard Jones, with an apron tied to a broomstick. Jones told the mob the men would surrender if their safety would be guaranteed. He was told, "Come on out and we'll get you out of the county." The nearly 50 strikebreakers, guards and superintendent McDowell did as they were told, and the union miners began marching them all to Herrin, five miles away. After about a half mile, the strikebreakers encountered more men waiting at Crenshaw Crossing. One of them shouted, "The only way to free the county of strikebreakers is to kill them all off and stop the breed!" The mob grew more agitated and violent as the procession of prisoners continued. Some struck the strikebreakers with the butts of their rifles and shotguns."

"The strikebreakers were taken into the woods, where they reached a barbed wire fence. They were told to run for their lives. A union man shouted, "Let's see how fast you can run between here and Chicago, you damned gutter-bums!" The mob opened fire as they ran. Many of the non-union men were caught in the fence and shot dead. Others, making it over the fence but not knowing where they were, ran through Harrison's Woods toward Herrin, a mile further north. One strikebreaker was caught and hanged, and three more were shot to death at his feet. The assistant superintendent of the mine was still alive but unconscious. A union man noticed and shot him in the head. The chase continued into the morning of the 22nd. Six men were shot and killed outside Smith's Garage in the town.

Six strikebreakers were recaptured and ordered to remove their shirts and shoes. They were told to crawl to Herrin Cemetery. By noon a crowd of about 1,000 spectators had gathered at the cemetery. They watched as the strikebreakers were roped together, and union men took turns beating and shooting them. They were also urinated upon. Those still alive at the end had their throats cut by a union man with a pocketknife. Townspeople came to watch and taunt the dead and dying along the route to the cemetery. A reporter tried to give a dying man some water and was told that if he did, "he wouldn't live to see the next day."

Herrin massacre - Wikipedia

Here is an article of a journalist who was blinded for reporting on the union's violent behavior.

The Labor Journalist Blinded by Union Thugs

Also, in addition to the Fed raising interest rates and Hoover raising taxes, FDR pushed hard for labor unions. This artificially drove up wages and expenses as well as caused massive strikes and hurt American Industry at a vulnerable time.

Labor Unions - The Great Depression: 1929-1939

 

[bripat9643]

Ever heard of the Herrin massacre? Replacement workers were surrounded at gunpoint. They surrendered. Union thigs marched them to town, made them strip and crawl through the streets, took them out to the woods, and gunned them down.

"The strikebreakers sent out a mine guard, Bernard Jones, with an apron tied to a broomstick. Jones told the mob the men would surrender if their safety would be guaranteed. He was told, "Come on out and we'll get you out of the county." The nearly 50 strikebreakers, guards and superintendent McDowell did as they were told, and the union miners began marching them all to Herrin, five miles away. After about a half mile, the strikebreakers encountered more men waiting at Crenshaw Crossing. One of them shouted, "The only way to free the county of strikebreakers is to kill them all off and stop the breed!" The mob grew more agitated and violent as the procession of prisoners continued. Some struck the strikebreakers with the butts of their rifles and shotguns."

"The strikebreakers were taken into the woods, where they reached a barbed wire fence. They were told to run for their lives. A union man shouted, "Let's see how fast you can run between here and Chicago, you damned gutter-bums!" The mob opened fire as they ran. Many of the non-union men were caught in the fence and shot dead. Others, making it over the fence but not knowing where they were, ran through Harrison's Woods toward Herrin, a mile further north. One strikebreaker was caught and hanged, and three more were shot to death at his feet. The assistant superintendent of the mine was still alive but unconscious. A union man noticed and shot him in the head. The chase continued into the morning of the 22nd. Six men were shot and killed outside Smith's Garage in the town.

Six strikebreakers were recaptured and ordered to remove their shirts and shoes. They were told to crawl to Herrin Cemetery. By noon a crowd of about 1,000 spectators had gathered at the cemetery. They watched as the strikebreakers were roped together, and union men took turns beating and shooting them. They were also urinated upon. Those still alive at the end had their throats cut by a union man with a pocketknife. Townspeople came to watch and taunt the dead and dying along the route to the cemetery. A reporter tried to give a dying man some water and was told that if he did, "he wouldn't live to see the next day."

Herrin massacre - Wikipedia

Here is an article of a journalist who was blinded for reporting on the union's violent behavior.

The Labor Journalist Blinded by Union Thugs

Also, in addition to the Fed raising interest rates and Hoover raising taxes, FDR pushed hard for labor unions. This artificially drove up wages and expenses as well as caused massive strikes and hurt American Industry at a vulnerable time.

Labor Unions - The Great Depression: 1929-1939

You gotta love those peaceful union strikers.