alternatehistory.com

In the 1910s, there was serious discussion over far-reaching social reforms in the United States. At the time, a number of European countries were adopting laws to provide health insurance to workers and the poor, old age pensions, and limiting work hours.

A bill for a hybrid health insurance system to cover workers and the very poor was proposed in the United States, but the unions (which provided their own social benefits and worried about losing their own power) and the private insurance industry torpedoed it (read about it here), and since Germany had pioneer this system, the war fever of World War I was the final nail in it's coffin. President William Howard Taft personally said he thought all workers should get three months vacation every year by law.

Suppose the US had passed these reforms and others which came later such as the eight-hour workday and legally recognizing unions? How would US politics be different (how would global labor law be like today if the three-month vacation was adopted and proved successful)?
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