However, without somebody watching out for workers, conditions are left up to the individual employers. Some are scrupulous, many are not. With the economy the way it is, the ones that are less scrupulous will win out in many industries.

That's it precisely. It's like saying the public welfare system (which includes Social Security and Medicare - remember, everybody gets to benefit when they get old, not just those who paid in) has a lot of fat, so it needs to be eliminated. No, it doesn't - it perhaps needs to be overhauled, I would go along with that to an extent, but the amount of good it does outweighs the muck also inherent in it.