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Originally Posted by Clodfobble
What happened to you? Such hostility.
Um, nothing happened to me. I didn't intend for that phrase to be read with any hostility at all.  I guess I should use more emoticons. But it's a serious question--why do you see the modern grunt worker as "miserable" but the grunt worker from the past was satisfied? I'd be curious to see an inflation-adjusted comparison of their earnings, I bet they weren't too disparate.
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The grunt worker from the past is satisfied because he worked for a company that worked for him. I'm flipping through an old sociology text, and the phrase is Social Contract...it's what Henry Ford meant when he reasoned that his workers would buy his automobiles if he made sure they could afford them. It's what Ken Lay violated when he raped so many people of their retirement savings. It's the idea that someone can start working for a company in the mail room at 16 years old, stick with that same company all his life, and retire comfortably from a good position. It's a faith that the people you work for are looking out for your best interests, and not just how to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of you while paying you just enough to make sure that you can't get a better deal elsewhere. It's common fucking decency amongst employers, and it disappeared somewhere in the 80s.