Mises Again...

[Lolumad273]

http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=511

someone prove that wrong. The argument that Capitalism improved workplace conditions, at the threat of lawsuit, and government enforced compensation... seems wrong. It assumes that workers had a reasonable chance at winning lawsuits, and that unions didn't win compensation. Which they did. I would like some thoughts on this!

[Revolution starts with U]

The shorter work week is entirely a capitalist invention. As capital investment caused the marginal productivity of labor to increase over time, less labor was required to produce the same levels of output. As competition became more intense, many employers competed for the best employees by offering both better pay and shorter hours. Those who did not offer shorter work weeks were compelled by the forces of competition to offer higher compensating wages or become uncompetitive in the labor market.
Ahistorical nonsense. Those "forces" were unions and militant class struggle.


Capitalistic competition is also why "child labor" has all but disappeared, despite unionist claims to the contrary. Young people originally left the farms to work in harsh factory conditions because it was a matter of survival for them and their families. But as workers became better paid—thanks to capital investment and subsequent productivity improvements—more and more people could afford to keep their children at home and in school
Workers had to demand to be better paid, and were often shot for it. More ahistorical nonsense. (Which is pretty much what you get in Austrian revisionist history).

Notice it says "Union-backed legislation," not "union backed demands." That "process that had already begun" did not happen by capitalists willfully not accepting the labor of children.

I'm not going to even do the rest of this. It's nonsense ahistory.

[jookyle]

Everything that workers(and the masses in general for that matter) have gained whether it be rights, wages, or safety, have been gained because people organized and fought for them.

[Lolumad273]

It seemed painfully untrue. And yet, some people still believe it.

[Rafiq]

Have they offered any evidence for this claim?

[Revolution starts with U]

No, they just think it up a priori and dismiss evidence because it can't "overwrite economic law."