@atomicpoet From a distance it really seems like the US economy is built around finding different ways of reinventing slavery, or at least making people work like slaves.

From the lack of employment protection to having healthcare tied to continued employment to forced labour of prisoners (and the consequent bribery and lobbying of judges and politicians to ensure a continual supply of prisoner slaves), it's all about creating a class of people who have to work 3 jobs to survive and can't afford to ever say no.

Which reminds me that a partial answer to "Why didn't the Romans have an Industrial Revolution" is "because they had slaves"; there's no need to invent steam power or labour saving devices when you can just throw more slaves at the problem; slavery is the enemy of technological innovation. It's easier to hire some desperate customer support representatives than improve the helpdesk system.

It really doesn't seem like a healthy or sustainable way of running things.