It took the collapse of Wall St. in 1929 and the Great Depression to bring an end to the Gilded Age. Gone were the days of a few super-rich and a vast panoply of laborers, toiling long days in a growing industrial society for pennies. Once it became clear that a middle class was required for America to survive, regulations were put in place to ensure the robber barons and captains of industry shared the largesse created by the sweat of the employees. Labor unions helped push forward a set of standards that we enjoy to this day.

It's clear that the Republicans believe all of the standards that saved America from its feudal lords are now choking our "Free Market". Are labor standards an anachronism of a bygone era? Are 40 hour work weeks a symbol of laziness? Is minimum wage too much to ask of business that rewards it's top-level executives in greater percentages every year? Who will have enough money to spend to support these top-heavy salary distributions? It seems we could be headed back to The Jungle.

Still - the Republicans are forging full steam ahead with their attempts at dismantling the hard-fought rights the worker has earned. The anti-union law in Wisconsin has been a galvanizing watershed for unions and other workers in the U.S. Unfortunately, it's repeal has been dealt another setback:

For those that may have forgotten, David Prosser was awarded re-election by a former aide of his working in a county clerk's office who miraculously found JUST enough votes to secure his election without triggering an automatic recount. This is how they do it.

To ensure there are plenty of replaceable meat cogs for the machinery of business, states are also trying to roll back child labor laws that have ensured for decades that children spend their youth getting an education rather than working 12 hours/day in a factory:

It's not really a laughing matter. The assault on Labor has been unrelenting from the Republicans, using the Luntz/Gingrich approach of casting unions as being full of "thugs" and demonizing them for enjoying "entitlements". Wal-Mart has been steadfast in opposing unions in their sweatshops stores, but sometimes even they go too far and get slapped by the courts. A PA state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the workers when they sued Wal-Mart for denying them rest and meal breaks as proscribed by state law. The workers are lucky they didn't have a Kathy Nickolaus working in the state government for the last election filling judicial seats.

Sadly, even Target (who treated my niece quite well when she worked there) is trying to scare its employees into avoiding unions. Is this really necessary? It seems to me the best way to keep your employees from unionizing is to treat them fairly. A happy employee has little incentive to unionize.

Where will this all end? Once workers are reduced to chattel by the elimination of protections, then we return completely to the meat grinders of yore. With the collapse of the American middle class, no one will have spending money to keep the companies going. They are treating the American economy like a giant Ponzi scheme. This is what happened 82 years ago. I hope we can keep it from happening again.