[lurking15]

> Want to know what food and housing was like before regulation? Read the jungle.

Not convincing since you're reducing the entire time period to The Jungle which was sensationalized fiction, effectively political propaganda.

But to your broader point, things improved directly from capitalism and markets. My reading recommendation? Deirdre McCloskey "Why Liberalism Works" on the absurd increase in living standards brought about through innovation enabled by capitalism, we're talking some 3,000% in average income over the course of time you're referring to.

[ses1984]

Where you have 3000% increase in income do you also have absolutely no regulation?

I don’t think you can just factor out the regulation, assign it none of the credit for how things turned out, and assign all the credit to unchecked capitalism.

Maybe the jungle is sensationalized, what was really happening roughly concurrently: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, homestead steel strike, Pullman strike, tenement housing, etc

If you prefer less dramatized further reading, https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/mono-regsafepar...

I don’t think liberalism doesn’t work. I’m just responding to someone saying it’s “undeniable that heavy regulation and subsidization is the root of dysfunction and deterioration of most important aspects of life”.

Some regulations are bad, either intentionally or unintentionally, but a lot of regulation exists because the prior unregulated state was horrific.