re: #265 makeitstop

Apply that line of thinking to attitudes towards unions:

‘Hey, we’ve got a 40 hour week and weekends of. What do we need unions for?’

Or the environment:

‘The water in my town is totally drinkable! The Clean Water Act is unnecessary!’

Too many people were not around when things weren’t as good as they are now, and they assume things were always that good, without anyone having to make them that way.

Too bloody right! Those who grew up in the 70s and 80s only know unions as big corrupt organizations as mired in dinosaur thinking as the companies they worked with. All the benefits unions had provided were taken as a given, so what was the point of them?

As you say, same thing for clean air and water. The Cuyahoga River fucking CAUGHT FIRE!!! My Dad grew up in Pittsburgh and told me of the time the smoke was so bad he had to walk down a streetcar line waving his handkerchief so his friend following him an a car could see to drive. All that is gone. People see pictures from the bad old days and assume it was just lousy weather, but that was the fucking AIR!!!

But just like with vaccines, we’re seeing the effect of complacency. Middle class wages declining, the 8-hour day/40 hr week ‘redefined’ to give employers ‘flexibility’.