Mark, I am not sure working in that place...
Would be considered "fun" if you had to do it 40 hours a week for years. Looks like back breaking labor in unpleasant conditions (brutally hot in the summer especially). It must have been brutal on their hands (no gloves that I could see) plus I cannot imagine what the sorting room with the soiled laundry would smell like on a hot, humid summer day.
There are commercial laundries still out there - hopefully conditions are better but I don't have any knowledge of that, but I would bet that the people working there are immigrant Asians and Latinos working their butts off to make a better future for their families. I rather doubt that these are the types of jobs we need to "Make America Great" again.
One of the harsh realities of the current job market as I see it (for whatever that is worth) is that there are not enough competent, skilled workers to fill jobs that are needed and not enough focus is put on retraining other more marketable skills.
As to longevity, both my maternal grandparents died at 63 (only 11 years older than I am now). Granted, they both smoked and were overweight. They would have been 32 and 34 when that film was shot. Grandma worked in a local shirt manufacturing shop for years and then worked in the Credit Department at the local Sears store. Grandpa was a butcher. Granted we have an rapidly (and alarmingly) high number of people today that have what are called "lifestyle" diseases (Type 2 Diabetes for example). I don't think going back to sweatshops will fix that.
As to the efficacy of modern laundry equipment, I think a lot of the fault is user error or lack of interest. Even my Mom's basic GE (Frigidaire made, I think) is over 10 years old and going strong with no funky smells, etc. She gets fine results with Persil and hot water when required. Not all the HE designs are good and some are better than others. If you think about it, with all the new HE wash mechanisms, in some way we are entering an exciting time in home laundry - almost the equivalent of when the first fully automatic machines were being rolled out. Both are era's of rapidly changing designs and gradual but constant improvements.
Just my $0.02.
