OK. In the ’30s, the government-owned and ironically named National Shipbuilders Security Ltd decided, in the face of an overcapacity of ship-building, to close the yard at Jarrow in order to protect more modern yards on the Tyne. Not only was the yard closed, but they took the equipment away so the workers were unable to attempt to make a go of it alone. The consequences – which nobody in the National Shipbuilders Security company would have had to face – was that Jarrow fell into deep poverty.
You might be tempted to blame the government for that one, and I don’t know enough to comment. But contrast with the early 1800s, when industrialists (among whom capital had concentrated) mechanised their looms, putting thousands of weavers out of work overnight. Some of those unemployed turned to frame breaking and assassination – until a law was passed to make it punishable by death.
Who was free, and who had prevented others from enacting their freedoms?