Was the Industrial Revolution a good thing or a bad thing?
The Industrial Revolution is a conundrum because on one hand you have the poor working and living conditions but on the other you have the advancements in technology and medicine. Was what the people who had to live through worth the benefits we get to enjoy now? Since the Industrial Revolution we have gone from living off the land to destroying it. The daily burning of coal in the factories began an ever increasing amount of carbon dioxide released into the air. The working population of the time suffered horrid conditions so that we could have the internet and medicine? Am I the only one that sounds wrong to? These people died and became cripples because of a change they had no control over. The rich got richer because they had the money to buy the factories/mines and new technology and the poor got poorer and became forced to live and work in unhygienic and very dangerous conditions. Because of enclosure and the advancements in farming technology many workers were 'fired' and ended up living off scraps in the cities. For many this drastic change in location and way of living happened extremely quickly. Children became the main source of income and families no longer had the space to grow crops and raise animals they previously would of had access to in the farms. They went from a boss who gave them enough to survive to a boss who liked to overwork them (12-16 hours a day) and pay them little for it (roughly 22 shillings or $4.37 today).
But if it hadn't been for the Industrial Revolution we would still be working in farms with the same technology they had in the medieval period and a very basic vocabulary. You wouldn't be reading this or have any idea of what the internet or a computer is. You would make all your clothes, food and tools yourself from materials your family grew.
So you make up your own mind about the Industrial Revolution, was it a good or bad thing? Do the benefits excuse the means? Are we better off because of it?
But if it hadn't been for the Industrial Revolution we would still be working in farms with the same technology they had in the medieval period and a very basic vocabulary. You wouldn't be reading this or have any idea of what the internet or a computer is. You would make all your clothes, food and tools yourself from materials your family grew.
So you make up your own mind about the Industrial Revolution, was it a good or bad thing? Do the benefits excuse the means? Are we better off because of it?