Before the 1930s inclusive, there were no labor laws or minimum wage laws and businesses exploited workers and ignored any type of safety , which led to the creation of unions and labor laws. . America has seen rivers catch fire from pollution. It is therefore certain that certain pollution standards were necessary. The other side of the coin is the enormous and invasive amount of government regulations that Americans currently see. The problem with the system as it is is that the American people have no moderation. One side wants to eliminate government from their lives, in part to take advantage of the lower classes and allow greed to conquer all. While the other wants the government to get involved in everything to build a fantasy utopian life. The liberal mentality comes very close to believing that the government can regulate a utopian society in which everyone has their needs met (if not by their own work, then at least by the government). Conservatives would have you believe that individuals and businesses, left unchecked and unregulated, would also migrate toward some sort of utopian society, with only winners and losers, where hard work is always rewarded and the market self-regulates and if you are poor it is only because of your own lack of effort and individual ability. There is no evidence that either of these ideals work for long