There have been massive gains in productivity over the past century. So why are people still working so hard for so long? Output per worker increased by almost 300% between 1950 and…
Tag: Labor rights
The US has a child labor problem – recalling an embarrassing past that Americans may think they’ve left behind
At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Special Collections, where I am head curator, we’ve recently completed a major digitization and rehousing project of our collection of over 5,400 photographs made by…
How did abuse get baked into the restaurant industry?
When the The New York Times and The Boston Globe recently published exposés in which employees of award-winning chef Barbara Lynch described their abusive work environments, we weren’t surprised. Anyone who has…
The exploitation of Hollywood’s writers is just another symptom of digital feudalism
The current Hollywood writers strike has drawn international attention to the plight of TV and film writers in the streaming era. Much has been made of television’s golden age, during which streaming…
Actors are demanding that Hollywood catch up with technological changes in a sequel to a 1960 strike
For the first time since 1960, actors and screenwriters are on strike at the same time. As with many of the other strikes that have rippled across the United States over the…