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How Did The Industrial Revolution Cause Poverty

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The Industrial Revolution was a very important part of this country’s history.
It made things easier for many people, such as not having to make clothes by hand . However, the success of the Industrial revolution also sacrificed many things that were important for the well being of the people. The Industrial Revolution was not worth sacrificing the people’s health, the poverty, and the overpopulation and pollution. These were setbacks for the American population. Health was a huge issue in the cities during the Industrial Revolution. People were overworked and underpaid. The factories had no health code laws and unsafe working conditions. Many children as young as five worked in these unsafe factories. It was not uncommon for there …show more content…

This caused many men and women to force their children to work. Which eventually lead to a very high mortality rate because the children didn’t learn to use the machines properly or because it was too dangerous for them. Even though the people had their children working also, the poverty was still very high. “And it seems to me clear that the great majority of those who suffer from poverty are poor not from their own particular faults, but because of conditions imposed by society at large,” this is from an excerpt from Henry George’s essay called “The Crime of Poverty”. Henry George is talking about how that people themselves, didn’t cause poverty, but society as a whole did. Society decided that they should all move to the cities for work. Poverty eventually led to overpopulation and …show more content…

It was very unhealthy for the people living in the cities at the time. Since many people moved to the states from other countries, there wasn’t much room for everyone. The government set up tenements for immigrants. Tenements were apartments that housed two to three families. It was very crowded for the people living there. In a picture that Jacob Riis took at the Five Cents Lodging on Bayard Street in 1889, there were about six people sitting in one room with all of their belongings stacked to the ceiling because there wasn’t enough room for everyone and their things. In the picture the people look very sad and uncomfortable which is understandable. Anyone in their position would be miserable. Pollution was caused by the smog from the factories and by the people that would throw their trash and plumbing out the window. Indoor plumbing hadn’t been invented yet so the only other choice was to walk down the many flights of stairs and go in the outhouse. The pollution caused many illnesses that spread throughout the country. None of which were worth the success of the Industrial

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