During the time period of 1780-1850 the United States and Great Britain were part of the Industrial Revolution. This revolution was a time of many changes with technology and scientific advancements.
Many changes happened during the revolution that changed the way people worked, lived and survived. The Industrial Revolution included many changes to production of goods and materials. More technology-advanced equipment was able to change the way food, textiles, steel and chemicals were made. The changes to the equipment made it more efficient for items to be made and would allow sales of the goods to happen faster and in turn would lead to a need for larger quantity of productions. What used to take one week for a factory worker to make, a newer advanced machine could produce the item in one day. Having the machines to make the goods also allowed for a more consistent product to be produced and led the way for future technologies. A downside of the advanced equipment was that it was very costly. One of the ways that the cost was reduced for individual investors is that they would combine their money together in order to purchase them (History 2009).
Due to the large amount of manufacturing, jobs that people used to work and depended on for money were closed and this caused them to have to work in the factories. The factory owners even allowed women and young children to work in the facilities. This would be very stressful on families and it caused the breakdown of the structured family unit. This happened because when workers were actually making the products it was a much slower process and it gave the workers a chance to spend time with their families. Since the women were used to make a higher profit at the factories they were no longer home to take of household duties (History, 2009).
The Essay on Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted
In his article, “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted”, Malcolm Gladwell offers harsh critiques of the superficial relationship between social media and social change. Gladwell writes, “social media cannot provide what social change requires” (Gladwell, 315). Gladwell argues that social change requires “strong ties” and “a level of hierarchy organization” in which social media, ...
Children were in the factories working instead of receiving and education.
Another change that happened during the Industrial Revolution was urbanization. More jobs were created due to factories being built. New
jobs were created because they needed people to help manage the equipment in the factories. Workers felt like a factory job would be beneficial to them so they would move from their rural homes to more commercialized areas. There were some negative factors that came along with the urbanization. Since the factories attracted workers from many different cultures this caused a decrease in cultural values. Having a dramatic increase in population in the area also brought crimes, poverty and pollution (History, 2009).
Capitalism played a great role in the economic activity. This was due to the development of industries. When workers left their farm lands to come work for factories, they left their owned property and were at the mercy of the factory owners for a paycheck. The First Industrial Revolution contributed to capitalism because the factories competed against one another to produce the better product at a faster pace.
Capitalism allows for a person to have some economic freedom. It allows them to make as much profit and obtain as much property as they would like. A good attribute of having the economic freedom is that it would encourage companies to come up with new and better products in order to stay competitive. A negative of capitalism is that the competition between factories would regulate the market rather then the legislation. With this lack of legislation there were unsafe work condition, child labor and no minimum wage. There was also no regulation of the quality of products that the factories would produce. Communism is different in that is a communal control over the economy and the money made and lost and even the property is shared among everyone. The benefit of Communism is that it encourages the rights of workers and the quality of the economy. One of the goals of communism is to have all of the citizens work towards the quality of the economy and to have everyone receive the same benefits (History, 2009).
The Essay on Capitalism Vs. Communism
Capitalism and Communism are two entirely diverse economic systems. Capitalism is an economic system characterized by freedom of the market. Capitalism has many pros to go along with its economy. The government will change gradually, but is able to adjust to it with ease. Communism can be defined as an economic and political system in which facts of production are collectively owned and directed ...
Capitalism became more popular as the factories got bigger and more popular. This caused changes among the working class that were now performing wage labor. The only people that became wealthy were the owners of the factories. The owners would pay the factory workers very little and they had to live in poor conditions. In 1919 the communist party started in the United States which was though to be a possible solution to help protect the workers. They started to fight again the factories and encouraged workers rights. There were many people that were not happy about the communism so they fought against it. The Regulated Capitalism was developed to have create solutions to the problems (History, 2009).
References
History.com. (2009).
Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution
