Labor Exploitation In The Industrialization Of The US Essay

Industrialization: Benefits and Costs to American Society

Industrialization ushered in an age of unbridled capitalism that had never been seen before in American society. It also launched a new era of communication, travel, investment opportunities, leisure, comfort, and middle-class convenience. Industrialization attracted immigrants from around the world to Americaimmigrants who saw the US as the land of opportunity. But many of them found work in American factories to be unsafe, hostile, and inhumane. Industrialization also turned America into an imperial nation. Prior to industrialization, American society had largely limited itself to its own land; after industrialization, industrialists and their political allies began seeking ways to expand their influence and power abroad. Thus, war followed upon war, beginning with the Spanish-American War, and the story is ongoing still today. This paper will discuss how, overall, the main benefits were economic growth and social mobilityfor a time; yet, the costs were inevitably a loss of craftsmanship, labor exploitation, and social degradation.

One of the biggest benefits of industrialization was the growth in the American economy (Eckert et al., 2023). Factories, the steam engine, and steel mills made it possible to produce and move goods on an unprecedented scale. This led to increased trade and the rise of the United States as a global economic power. It also led to job creation. The...…to horrible overcrowding and poor living conditions. Immigrant ghettoes were the norm, which is why areas like Chinatown, or Little Italy, popped up in big cities: these were regions populated by people of similar ethnicity, where they often lived poor but among people of the same cultural tradition. Moreover, the industrial economy experienced cycles of boom and bust and economic instability, which led to the Great Depression (Eckert et al., 2023).

Ultimately, industrialization in America was a double-edged sword. It brought about huge economic growth, technological innovation, and for some, social mobility; but it also resulted in labor exploitation, loss of craftsmen, economic instability, and social inequality. In fact, these effects are…

Sources Used in Documents:

References

Eckert, F., Juneau, J., & Peters, M. (2023, May). Sprouting Cities: How Rural AmericaIndustrialized. In AEA Papers and Proceedings (Vol. 113, pp. 87-92). 2014 Broadway, Suite 305, Nashville, TN 37203: American Economic Association.

Rosenbloom, J. L. (2002). Looking for work, searching for workers: American labor marketsduring industrialization. Cambridge University Press.


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