Ever since the 18th century, thinkers like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels have questioned the ideas and actions of capitalists. The philosophers argued against the working class’s poor working and living conditions during the Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, they opposed the unfair nature of a capitalist economy run by private companies. The selfish values capitalism promoted were amongst some of the system’s biggest concerns. Rapid capitalism during the 17th century, brought numerous problems such as poor working and living conditions, an unfair distribution of wealth, and the immoral ideas it promoted, thus giving birth to the ideas of socialism.
Poor working and living conditions fueled the desire for a system to protect the working class. During the Industrial Revolution, people worked an immense amount of consecutive hours under hazardous health conditions (Cooper, 1832).
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Some workers spent eighteen hours at work per day (Wilson Mill). Among those who suffered, children were often mistreated and sickness was common, because of extensive laborious tasks, short lunch breaks, or getting whipped in order to stay focused. These harsh working conditions were implemented by selfish industrialists with no regard to the wellbeing of the masses, but only to maximize their gains (Hebergam, 1832). These horrendous conditions have caught Marx’s and Engel’s attention and proved that capitalism was largely detrimental to the working class. In Marx’s eyes, the capitalist economy was extremely unfair for the working class.
In “The Iron Law of Wages”, English Banker David Ricardo, stated that wages are greatly affected by the size of the worker population (Ricardo 1817).
As labor participation increased, capitalists were less willing to pay well. The cost of labor was unstable for those working. The ideals of socialism were to spread wealth among the poor evenly, ensuring everybody’s basic needs were satisfied.
Capitalism encouraged only individual pursuit without regard of the well being of others who contributed to the success. Industrialists invested in their own companies, benefitting their own desires instead of catering to the lower class’s needs. As a result, most of the wealth was controlled and owned by a small amount of people. The rich remained wealthy and most of the poor never emerged out of poverty. Capitalism destroys the idea of sharing, but instead promotes individualism. This motivated philosophers to adopt a better form of government, one that emphasized on equality and equal distribution of
wealth. Marx and Engels looked at the problems that the working class faced and identified them as weaknesses of capitalism. Many industrialists abused the capitalist system by manipulating wages and working conditions. As a result of the selfish philosophy that capitalism promoted, people were left starving on the streets, while industrialists became extremely wealthy. Thinkers thought that capitalism was inhumane and ineffective in satisfying the masses. Thus, thinkers were forced to envision a new ideological system, that would address these injustices suffered by the masses.
Throughout the 19th century, capitalism seemed like an economic utopia for some, but on the other hand some saw it as a troublesome whirlpool that would lead to bigger problems. The development of capitalism in popular countries such as in England brought the idea that the supply and demand exchange systems could work in most trade based countries. Other countries such as Russia thought that the proletariats and bourgeoisie could not co-exist with demand for power and land, and eventually resorted to communism in the early 20th century. Although many different systems were available to the countries in need of economic change, a majority of them found the right system for their needs. And when capitalist societies began to take full swing, some classes did not benefit as well as others and this resulted in a vast amount of proletariats looking for work. Capitalists societies are for certain a win-loss system, and many people did not like the change from having there society changed to a government controlled money hungry system. On the other hand, the demand for labor brought the bourgeoisie large profits because they could pay out as much as they wanted for labor.
The Industrial Revolution began in England during the late 1700s, and by the end of its era, had created an enormous amount of both positive and negative effects on the world in social, economic, and even political ways. The revolution began to spread across the world, raising the standard of life for the populations in both Europe and North America throughout the 1800s. However, even with all of its obvious benefits, its downsides are nonnegotiable, forcing workers into horrendous living and working conditions, all inside of unkempt cities. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of the railroad system, it was actually a negative thing for society. Industrialization’s
The factory whistle blows right in the middle of your favorite dream. You wake up in a startle as you glance at the clock. 5:30 am. You rush to get out of bed, seeing that you have to get to work in 30 minutes. You splash some water on your face, brush your teeth, put on some fine factory clothes, pull your hair back, grab an apple and run as fast as a gazelle. The Industrial Revolution had both positive and negatives on the lives of adults and children during that time period.
The impact of the Industrial Revolution was a positive experience for some, but it was a great difficulty for others. Because of the demands for reform and protection for workers arose, government and unions began to take place. That was how the evils of the Industrial Revolution addressed in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Working conditions in the Industrial Revolution were very harsh. It was a time when people wanted mass amounts of production and were not concerned about how things got done as long as they got done. Chadwick and Sadler both took initiative to try to change and protect workers’ rights. As worker’s health became more public, people began to realize how bad they were suffering, the Parliament knew they had to make changes. The Parliament put in many acts and laws that would limit work hours and give workers more rights and better health.
America had a huge industrial revolution in the late 1800”s. Many changes happened to our great nation, which factored into this. The evidence clearly shows that advancements in new technology, a large wave of immigrants into our country and new views of our government, helped to promote America’s huge industrial growth from the period of 1860-1900.
To begin, factory workers happiness and civilization greatly suffered. Within the factories all happiness of workers was lost. During the Industrial Revolution the amount of products being produced outshined the terrible working conditions the factory workers endured. The once civilized citizens quickly turned uncivilized (Doc. 4). English benefited from the Industrial Revolution in small extent regarding the suffering the workers endured. The cities became very unhappy places. The amount and quality of the goods produced outshined the horrific conditions. Due to all of the circumstances life quickly turned uncivilized. Next, the reward for the long hours the workers endured was not nearly enough. Factory workers were downgraded and many suffered physically. Many factors couldn’t afford or even just didn’t have access to food. These workers were long hours in terrible conditions for little pay off (Doc. 5). During this time of an increase in machinery Eli Whitney, an American, invented the cotton gin that made for a much more efficient way of separating seeds from cotton. This cotton was used very often in the factories, explaining what some of the lose particles being breathed in by the workers were. English benefited from the Industrial Revolution in small extent due to little pay off for the workers who worked in awful conditions.
This paper is intended to assess key ideas of Marxism with observations of the positives and negatives it brought and the reasons why the concepts failed. The word “communism” is generally linked to “Marxism”. Since Marx along with Friedrich Engels published the cutting-edge thesis, The Communist Manifesto in the middle of the 19th century, it conceived the new dimension for both politics and economics. Before turning to the principles of the Manifesto, it is useful to present the brief historical background of the era, and understand why it affected the ideology. Predominantly the Industrial Revolution (IR) and the Great Revolution in France (FR) transformed the society as follows: creation of conditions for capitalism by destroying feudalism.
In order to keep up with the mass of people, cities were forced to create new living conditions to accommodate all the people. These conditions were not necessarily good. They were often unsanitary and crowded which lead to disease spreading quick and devastating much of the population. In England, where the Industrial Revolution was going strong, “...the average life expectancy was only 39.5 years, less than it had been some three centuries earlier.” (Strayer. Pg.838). People were drinking unsanitary water, which lead to overall poor health. Not only were their home lives in bad conditions, but their work life was also a problem. The workers of factories often received so little money and terrible hours that it was almost impossible to live off of. Inside the factories were hot, unsafe and the work the discipline at work was enforced harshly. People were not necessarily treated with human respect, instead they were tools to help factory owners get more profit and get that profit as fast and cheap as possible. Though some effects are negative, some aspects left a more positive
The Industrial Revolution refers to the major change that happened in the manufacturing process in the 18th century. These changes that covered many branches first appeared in Britain.
Going to work for a full day isn’t much fun after working fifteen hours the day before! 60-70 hour work days are never pleasant in anybody’s mind. How is it that so many people did this during the Industrial Revolution? Was it because they wanted the extra money? Or was it because they wanted the high political or economic status? For some people these were the reasons, but for most it was because of one concern. Survival! The Industrial Revolution greatly changed the workplace and the proletarians.
Marx is able to demonstrate the consequences that result from transforming values into productions suited for profit, as he writes, “This boundless greed after riches, this passionate chase after exchange-value is common to the capitalist and the miser; but while the miser is merely a capitalist gone mad, the capitalist is a rational miser” (Marx 63). There is no sense of abhorrence for a particular individual in Marx’s interpretation of capitalism and instead focuses on the capitalistic economic structure. However, it is through this quote that a sense of inequality starts to emerge. As a result, a hierarchy is produced, creating an enduring structure of capitalism, where those who control the circulation of money are granted unlimited power. This has become evident in recent years, as in 2008, a social power analysis by Dr. John S. Atlee and Tom Atlee was published. In “Democracy: A Social Power Analysis” Altlee describes the power of money and status as he states, “People with lots of money, muscle, status, intelligence, etc., can usually successfully influence other people. In most (but, significantly, not all) circumstances, they have more social power” (Atlee). Economic power is proven to be pivotal in attaining another individual’s attention and status of capability. Thus, the capitalist is free to develop their own sense of
Capitalism dominates the world today. Known as a system to create wealth, capitalism’s main purpose is to increase profits through land, labor and free market. It is a replacement of feudalism and slavery. It promises to provide equality and increases living standards through equal exchanges, technological innovations and mass productions. However, taking a look at the global economy today, one can clearly see the disparity between developed and developing countries, and the persistence of poverty throughout the world despite the existence of abundant wealth. This modern issue was predicted and explained a hundred and fifty years ago in Karl Marx’s Capital.
If one looks at liberty and individual freedom, it is evident that command economies tend to oppress their citizens. Therefore, socialism, which allows for basic needs to be met and personal freedoms to be upheld, is the best economic system for all of a country’s citizens. Market economies, as a whole, inherently and inevitably lead to poverty and a large class disparity. In a capitalist society, the ones who supply labor, the ones who work the hardest, are the ones who are paid the least. The owners, who are already rich, receive most of the profit and accumulate large masses of wealth.
Working shifts were beyond the control of the workers and the job was not necessarily stable because workers could be fired at any time for any reason (OI: “Working Conditions”). Moreover, the working environment was cramped and caused many problems to arise, such as the death of workers. The working class suffered greatly from the consequences of the Industrial Revolution. However, they also experienced many improvements in life, such as the decrease in prices of goods. The price of goods was able to decrease because of the increase in production.