Labor legislation once counted as core economic liberty, not socialist encroachment.

Evidence

But since manual workers made up the overwhelming majority of the workforce, legislation on the freedom of association, labor contracts, working conditions, and hours of work was, in the nineteenth century, a very important part of “economic liberty,” even though such rights are usually understood to be part of the history of the socialist movement. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 391

Categorization

• XREF: Runs directly against the later Mont Pèlerin framing of labor and union legislation as threats to liberty — a core historiographical contrast. — connects to: Neoliberal ‘economic rights’ protect capital’s market freedom, not welfare entitlements. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 430
• SEED: Angle: how the meaning of ‘economic liberty’ was captured and inverted from its 19th-century, pro-labor definition.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 391

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal ‘economic rights’ protect capital’s market freedom, not welfare entitlements. #expands (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 430