Convenient historical perspectives only shade both sides of the truth, to wit a rebuttal:
"The end of the "Robber Baron" age is also known as the Progressive Era lasting from 1895 until World War I. This was a period of unrest and reform. Monopolies continued in spite of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Social problems flourished in the U.S. During the 1910s labor unions continued to grow as the middle classes became more and more unhappy. Unsafe working conditions were underscored by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in which 145 female workers were killed. Children were hired to work in factories, milles, and mines for long hours in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. Though efforts to pass a federal law proved unsuccessful, by the middle of this decade every state had passed a minimum age law. A commission found that up to 20% of the children living in cities were undernourished, education took second place to hunger and while children worked, only one-third enrolled in elementary school and less than 10% graduated from high school."
An yet it was likely better than grubbing dandelion roots from the back of a Conestoga wagon.
Standard of living is in the eye of the beholder. Regulation can be a good and bad thing depending upon application. Government is better than anarchy. Compromise is the key to success but as long as terms like Left, Right, Liberal, Conservative are use perjoratively we make no progress, only noise.
