3 ms·

Were the drunk/hl folks the ones working in the factory? Doesn’t sound practical.

taeric 1y ago
The assertion is that during times of high work, you have far fewer of them drinking. Pair that with low cost worker tenements and you are able to scale up manual tasks much more rapidly than what you see in most US locations nowadays.
dsr_ 1y ago
From the 1500s through 1930 or so, in any place you could see working men, you could see drunk ones. From 1930 through 1970, it was less common but just as tolerated. MADD did what Prohibition could not.
- fragmede 1y ago
  selt driving cars ftw?
- mixmastamyk 1y ago
  I'm familiar with that for say, digging a ditch, or the n-martini lunch. Less so with "perpetually drunk and homeless" factory workers operating potentially dangerous machinery.
  - zafka 1y ago
    I worked a summer job at a factory that made box cars. 10x10 or larger sheets of 1/4 inch plate steel lifted on stacks with chain hoists, box cars tacked together, then put on a large rotisserie, so it could be turned as all the seams were welded. Anyhow, At lunch we all went out for shots and beers, and perhaps a doobie or two. While I did not see it, people did get squished. I survived my summer, but I did pickup a nicotine habit that lasted 20 years.
  - sokoloff 1y ago
    I interned at Daimler-Benz and assembly line workers had company-employed drink trolleys which would take your order early in the shift for what partially subsidized drinks/snacks you wanted delivered for your breaks during your shift. A tone would sound in the factory and workers would converge on the break area near them and pick up what they’d ordered earlier that day. On the menu was beer and plenty of workers would have multiple beers over the course of their shift. These weren’t what you picture when someone says “perpetually drunk and homeless”, but I think a lot of Mercedes were assembled by workers with a perpetual low-level of alcohol on-board.

The assertion is that during times of high work, you have far fewer of them drinking. Pair that with low cost worker tenements and you are able to scale up manual tasks much more rapidly than what you see in most US locations nowadays.

dsr_ 1y ago

From the 1500s through 1930 or so, in any place you could see working men, you could see drunk ones. From 1930 through 1970, it was less common but just as tolerated. MADD did what Prohibition could not.

fragmede 1y ago
selt driving cars ftw?
mixmastamyk 1y ago
I'm familiar with that for say, digging a ditch, or the n-martini lunch. Less so with "perpetually drunk and homeless" factory workers operating potentially dangerous machinery.
- zafka 1y ago
  I worked a summer job at a factory that made box cars. 10x10 or larger sheets of 1/4 inch plate steel lifted on stacks with chain hoists, box cars tacked together, then put on a large rotisserie, so it could be turned as all the seams were welded. Anyhow, At lunch we all went out for shots and beers, and perhaps a doobie or two. While I did not see it, people did get squished. I survived my summer, but I did pickup a nicotine habit that lasted 20 years.
- sokoloff 1y ago
  I interned at Daimler-Benz and assembly line workers had company-employed drink trolleys which would take your order early in the shift for what partially subsidized drinks/snacks you wanted delivered for your breaks during your shift. A tone would sound in the factory and workers would converge on the break area near them and pick up what they’d ordered earlier that day. On the menu was beer and plenty of workers would have multiple beers over the course of their shift. These weren’t what you picture when someone says “perpetually drunk and homeless”, but I think a lot of Mercedes were assembled by workers with a perpetual low-level of alcohol on-board.