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1. jacobl+(OP)[view] [source] 2022-12-15 13:25:54
Remember, luddites largely weren't against technology.

What they were however was against was companies using that technology to slash their wages in exchange for being forced to do significantly more dangerous jobs.

In less than a decade, textile work went from a safe job with respectable pay for artisans and craftsmen into one of the most dangerous jobs of the industrialised era with often less than a third of the pay and the workers primarily being children.

That's what the luddites were afraid of. And the government response was military/police intervention, breaking of any and all strikes, and harsh punishments such as execution for damaging company property.

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