Industrialization is the social and economic transformation of a society from an agrarian economy to one based on mechanization. The United States underwent this process during the period from about 1760 to 1840, a period known as the Industrial Revolution.🔥 During this time, labor and processes traditionally performed by hand were replaced by machines that could perform tasks more efficiently.

Although new methods and machinery simplified work and increased output, industrialization introduced new problems as well. Some of the drawbacks included air and water pollut✃ion and soil contamination, resulting in a signif🌠icant deterioration of quality of life and life expectancy.

Industrialization also exacerbated the separation of labor and capital. Those who owned the means of production became disproportionately rich, resulting in wider 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:income inequality. Workers were forced to migrate t🔜o urban areas in search of job♒s. They worked long hours, were poorly nourished, and lived in overcrowded conditions, leading to disease and stress.

Environmental Disadvantages

One negative byproduct of industrialization is environmental pollution that harms human health. When companies do not fix or pay for the environmental damage they cause, or when these harms are not captured in pricing, this is termed a negative 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:externality. The cost burden🐠 is transferred to the government in the form of deforestation, extinction of species, widespread pollution, excessive waste, and other forms of environmental degr𒁃adation.

In the U.S., there has been some official recognition of industrial damage to the U.S. environment since at least 1970. In that year, President Richard Nixon created the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set pollution standards and seek ways to minimize the impact of industries on the environment.

Financial Disadvantages

Industrialization results in a wider gap between the rich and poor due to a division of labor and capital. Those who own capital tend to accumulate excessive profits derived from their economic activities, re🦂sulting in a higher disparity of income and wealth.

There has been a greater focus in recent years on wealth inequality, not least because the disparity has been growing greater for more than 40 years. In 2021, the top one percent of people in the U.S. held just shy of 35 percent of its wealth.

Social Disadvantages

In the early decades of industrialization, workers in the U.S. experienced the full gamut of disadvantages that are common in the process of industrialization. Many of those disadvantages were reduced or eliminated over time by labor laws and unionization, and by the simple fact that much of America's manufacturing moved abroad to take advantage of lower prices in countries that were hungrier for jobs.

That means, of🎃 course, that those problems did not disappear, they relocate▨d. Among the disadvantages of industrialization for workers were:

• Poor living and working conditions
• Exposure to hazardous conditions
• Child labor
• Unchecked pollution
• Overuse of fossil fuels
• The mechanization of farming, with questionable health benefits

The Bottom Line

The loss of manufacturing jobs experienced by the United States beginning in 1979 was a wrenching process for millions of Americans and many of its cities and towns. Our new economy may have its ups and downs, but it's wise to remember the struggles our grandparents went through to get here.