&gt; I don&#x27;t understand why people wouldn&#x27;t be willing to make windows—to take your example—in exchange for pay, just as they do now.<p>Two reasons:<p>[1] There might not be much to <i>buy</i> with that money due to effects like this &#x2F; inflation now that everyone has more money but there&#x27;s only the same amount (or less) of stuff to buy with that money.<p>[2] The actual job is horrible.<p>Some of the aspects of the job can be mitigated.  Others, not so much.  There&#x27;s a big tempering furnace that&#x27;s really hot.  There&#x27;s really no way to avoid being uncomfortably hot around the quench, even with the nearby air conditioned room.  It&#x27;s running at almost 800F all day.<p>Glass is inherently dangerous.  I know of people who have been killed on the job, in spite of lots of safety gear, etc.  I personally treated some very serious injuries (e.g. cuts to the wrist causing permanent damage and massive blood loss).<p>There&#x27;s a lot of grunt work that can&#x27;t be very easily automated.  It&#x27;s boring as hell.  It&#x27;s very tiring work.  I have lots of other complaints, but in theory, a different employer could at least fix some of those and they would presumably have to.