I would agree that treating economic efficiency as an end to itself isn't ideal - that creates lots of obvious problems. It's probably super efficient to have c

I would agree that treating economic efficiency as an end to itself isn't ideal - that creates lots of obvious problems. It's probably super efficient to have child labor, for example. > I think part of me just laments the fact that previous generations took a much bigger risk to form unions and modern generations have largely let it fall to the wayside. I agree, and it's frustrating not just here but in the political realm as well. I think the Greatest Generation came back from the war and took hold of, and created instutitions: universities, the FDA, the CDC, the FAA, the MacArthur Foundation (just a random thing that came to mind), and importantly unions that protected workers rights and living standards. In the political realm I recently volunteered as a poll worker - it was a ton of fun, truth be told albeit a long day. But many people, friends, family, etc. thought it was a bit weird. We can't have nice things if we don't take care of them or do the hard work of democracy (or unionization, or maintaining valuable institutions) if we don't actually do it. I'm not sure where this apathy and angst crept in, but I bet suburbanization and social media helped create and subsequently accelerate it to the point where we have some serious problems that need to be addressed.