Summer School 2: The golden ages of labor and looms

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2024

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Who has the power? Workers or bosses? It changes through the ages, though it's usually the bosses. Today, we look at two key moments when the power of labor shifted, for better and worse, and we ask why then? What does history have to say about labor power right now?

We travel to Sicily, Italy in the year 1347, where the bubonic plague is about to strike. The horror known as the Black Death will remake European society in countless ways, but we'll focus on one silver lining: how economic conditions shifted for workers.

Then we head about 500 years into the future, to an English factory at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, where textile workers take up arms against the machines taking their jobs and show how rapidly labor supply and demand can change. This is the famed tale of the Luddites, now a byword for knee jerk anti-technology, but the true story has nuance and a desperate but rational violent rebellion.

This series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Audrey Dilling. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Sofia Shchukina.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from NPR sponsor Morgan Stanley with their podcast
0:04.1	What Should I Do with my money? Smart people don't always feel smart about money.
0:08.2	Listen to what should I do with my money to hear real people getting real help from
0:12.2	experienced financial
0:13.2	advisors. This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:19.1	Welcome back everyone to Planet Money Summer School, Economic History of the World.
0:27.0	Don't worry, you won't have to spend these sunny days in a dark basement studying a dusty tome you can just relax as we hit the historical
0:35.9	highlights the big questions the mysterious players and as we'll see today
0:41.0	the revolutions moments when the world order gets overturned.
0:46.2	I'm Robert Smith, and this is lesson two, the rise of the worker.
0:51.8	Every Wednesday till Labor Day we are meeting here in your ears to explain the world of today with stories from the world of your.
1:00.0	Last week we explained what money really is and where it comes from.
1:03.9	Today we look at power through the eyes of the workers and the bosses.
1:08.6	Two stories today that show you how the balance between employer and employee, rich and poor can change suddenly, and how
1:16.4	we can all prepare for, and maybe even push for, changes happening today.
1:21.7	Re-joining us as our guest professor for this lesson is Rebecca Spang from the
1:25.0	Spang from the University of Indiana Bloomington.
1:28.0	Thanks for coming back.
1:29.0	Oh, of course.
1:30.0	It's so much fun.
1:31.0	So why study labor history now? Like what challenges are we facing in the economy
1:37.2	that make these stories particularly relevant?
	...

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