In the sweltering summer of 1911, while most children ran through fields and played carefree games, nine-year-old Nan de Gallant was already burdened with adult responsibilities. Living at 4 Clark Street in Eastport, Maine, Nan would rise early each day and head to Seacoast Canning Co., Factory #2, where she worked as a cartoner—sealing tin cans filled with fish. Hour after hour, she placed lids with practiced precision, her small hands sore from handling cold brine and sharp tin. Sometimes her mother was by her side. Often, she worked alone, enveloped by the hiss of machinery and the sharp scent of salt and fish. Nan’s story was far from unique. Her entire family, including her mother, sisters, and even her brother, worked in the factory. One sister once packed a whole crate of “Arie Hasit” brand fish during a shift that ran from 7 a.m. to midnight during the hectic rush season—no extra pay, no rest. Her brother hauled heavy loads from the boats, also caught in the same punishing cycle. Originally from Perry, Maine, the family migrated to Eastport each summer in search of whatever seasonal work they could find. The labor was grueling and the pay meager—but it meant survival. An old photograph of Nan still exists—her young face framed by a stoic expression, her eyes reflecting the quiet resolve of a child who had learned to endure far too early. There are no tears in her eyes. No smile. Just the haunting resilience of a girl who traded childhood for hard-earned strength.
There's nothing in her eyes, actually, the photo isn't clear enough to say anything. What I see I'd interpret as a "who the hell are you" look. OK, I'm not cruel.
Yet comments here about workers' struggle for rights and unions are absolutely correct.
In general, even things which were called good about "capitalism" traditionally aren't about bending over to capital-ists when they ask you for it. They are for everyone defending their interest to get a better deal, without violence as far as it's possible and with violence when it's not.
Some people's idea today of "capitalism" they defend that everyone should bend over for companies to make a buck and bring investors something is completely misguided. But other people's idea that they can fight in the other direction without fighting, by just voting or talking shit, is misguided too.
The mechanisms of peacefully getting your deal in the world are good and humane, but unfortunately they have rotten, and to replace them peacefully is not possible.
They have rotten because the generational memory of people who've built them has mostly left us. That always happens over time.
So - my complaint about "unregulated capitalism" is that it always was "regulated capitalism". It just was regulated with a difference balance of interests in mind. This distinction is important, because people advocating for the government's ability to bend everyone over forget that it can not only bend the "capitalists" to stop their abuse of you, it can also bend you so that you wouldn't resist that abuse.
(Talking about IP, patents, right to repair, reverse engineering, DMCA, responsibility for speech in the Internet and so on.)
So before making the government do something, it's better to have real power in the form of unions, mutual support, solidarity nets and even underground organizations aimed at using terror in case there's no other option. Ways to organize good enough. The laws more often than not just confirm the existing balance of power.