@danbrotherston @PaniczGodek @cabel If you see it from the distance of two centuries, from a society shaped by the industrial revolution it may look like that. But it seems you underestimate the massive disruption that it caused at the time.

For a lot of people the industrial revolution was catastrophic, bringing poverty, famine and early death. Trade unions, worker parties and communism were invented and revolutions staged. It took decades to fix the worst fallout of the industrial revolution.

Personally, I'd rather not have that happen in my lifetime but here we are.