"Until the turn of the 20th century, fringe benefits, insurance, retirement plans, and health benefits—the perks we have come to define as essential to employment—simply didn't exist. Employers had compensated employees solely with wages.
"But that changed with the onset of industrial capitalism. In Europe, governments responded to industrialism by developing state-run systems of unemployment insurance, health care, and pensions. But—in yet another example for American exceptionalism—the private sector took the lead in the United States."
From the Slate archives, Daniel Gross mourns the decline of welfare capitalism.
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