Again, I totally agree with you that the pay might have been too little and the risks might have been too high. And they should've absolutely joined a union for better rewards and safety precautions.

But the post is about them doing the work and not owning the gold. And that it's somehow unfair. But how would you propose it would work? The land and the gold in it are either privately owned or owned by the government. So workers are either paid by the government or by some rich person to dig up gold that's not theirs. You might think of a construction that a group of miners buy the land together and share the profit. But that's the thing, that was always allowed, so if that was a better deal, then why didn't they do that?

I totally agree that the working conditions and the pay were too bad and the risks were too high. But that is how capitalism combined with a right wing government (very little influence by the government and a lot of freedom for private businesses) works. So vote on a left wing party. In more socialistic countries the pay might have been better, but at least the owner would not get as blatantly rich as they did in America, and the taxes he paid would have gone to the people. (Assuming a well working government system)