Was The Industrial Revolution A Positive Thing For Society?

While people may argue about the outcome of the Industrial Revolution was negative because of the poor working/living conditions, it was actually a positive thing for society. Some of the Industrial Revolution’s positive effects were that it made goods cheaper and more available, it created more jobs/work for people, and new laws were implemented to improve working and living conditions of the working class families. The Industrial Revolution’s knack for making goods cheaper and more available helped the public. “One person doing all five required steps in manufacturing a product can make one unit. Five people each specializing in one of the five steps can make ten units in the same time” (Document 4). The invention of Henry Ford’s assembly …show more content…
“As the Industrial Revolution spread to the United States, plants such as this textile factory appeared” (Document 3). With an amount of entrepreneurs rising during the Industrial Revolution, they needed factories to produce their goods and with the opening of all these factories they needed works to work there in order to be successful. With places to work one will find people who want to work. Say five new factories appear and that they hire about fifty people per factory, that’s 250 jobs created and ready to be worked by people looking for it. These types of scenarios were happening all over during the Industrial Revolution. Also, if “One person doing all five required steps in manufacturing a product can make one unit. Five people each specializing in one of the five steps can make ten units in the same time” (Document 4). Also known as the assembly line created by Henry Ford. This way of producing products was very efficient, it created at least 5 times the jobs than it required before in this example of the industry. “I am at work in a spinning room tending four sides of the warp which is one girl’s work” (Document 1). If one girl can work 4 sides of a machine and still produce a decent amount of cloth. Although if the employer hired 4 people for 4 sides of a machine he’d be making a major increase in products from many people and since he has more people and more products he …show more content…
“Before dawn my labor drives me forth, tis night when I am free;” (Document 2). This is an excerpt from a poem that was written about a mother having to work 12-16 hours per day, then she could go home to care for her family and see her child. This shows that people (especially mothers) were put to work for too long of hours to even care or spend time with their own family. Of course now there are laws that have been passed making it so one person can only work a certain amount of hours per week (depending on the job). “C: What were your hours of labour in that mill? B: From 5 in the morning till 9 at night, when they were thronged. C: For how long a time together have you worked that excessive length of time? B: For about a year. C: What were the usual hours of labour when you were not thronged? B: From six in the morning till 7 at night. C: What time was allowed for meals? B: Forty minutes at noon. C: Had you any time to get your breakfast or drinking? B: No, we had to get it as we could” (Document 7). This girl was six years old when she was working at this factory for 17 hours a day for a year. That’s no time to converse with friends or family, barely any time at all to eat, and as soon as they get home, they would basically eat quickly then go to bed so they can get up the next and do the same thing over again. They had to wake up before 5am somehow get breakfast and go to work where they