Industrial Revolution's Effect on Social Class (Essay Sample)

Industrial Revolution’s Effects on Social Class
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Industrial Revolution’s Effects on Social Class
Major technological breakthroughs took place between the 18th and 19th century which had a huge impact on trade, agriculture, and manufacturing sector. ThisRevolution led to inventions such as steam engine, cotton grin, sewing machine, and multistory buildings. It has a lasting effect on lifestyle, urbanization, and class structure. Consequently, it brought drastic changes to the lives of people (Duiker & Spielvogel, 2007). Indeed, the upper and middle class benefited the most. Therefore, the Industrial Revolution increased the number of manufactured products, and made them more affordable to a majority of the people.
One of the majoroutcomes of the Industrial Revolution was the availability of machines which savedon human effort and time. They also increased the amount and rate of production. These machines helped in works that previously required manypersonnel, and therefore, the only requirement was skilled manpower to operate them. Consequently, the machines increased efficiency, and resulted in huge profits for the machine owners (Mann, 2012). Due to the increase in production, the supply of commodities increased, hence lowering the prices. Therefore, most people could afford some commodities that were not affordable before the Industrial Revolution. Consequently, there was an overall improvement in the people’s living standards.
Moreover, the Industrial Revolutionled to the opening ofvarious schools. In these schools, knowledge was passed to the younggeneration, and the learned were highly respected in the society.These were considered to be the cream of the society and were consulted ona variety ofthings. Their social class improved. The emergency of this class of people was as a result of the Revolution and impacted positively on the lives of the people. Indeed, the existence of the present day schools is a consequence of the Industrial Revolution. Through it, many innovations have been made, thereby putting the innovators on a reputable edge of the society.
On the other hand, the Industrial Revolution led to the loss of jobs. Prior to the revolution, even simple tasks were performed by a number of people. Through employment, people earned their daily bread, and were respected in the society. However, the Revolutionmechanized work, hence making many workers no longer useful to the businesses. Consequently,these people ended up living in slums and other poorenvironments. They were either forced to go to schools to acquire the skills necessary for employment or engage in manual labor to earn a living. However, the manual labor was not well paying, and eventually, the affected families ended up poor (Goloboy, 2008). Nevertheless, the ...