Are you seriously saying that the advancement in worker's conditions in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century were due only to employers being in competition with one another, and not due to legislative demands and union pressure? That the difference between conditions in, say, France and America are because French employers are just nicer people or have faced stiffer competition?

I've been both employer and employee. When employees don't like their job, they quit and move on.

If that wasn't true, every employee would be at minimum wage, and Google wouldn't offer free lunches.

I'm not really talking about 20-something software developers in Silicon Valley. There are things that keep people in jobs they don't like.