Dangers of Economic Development that Prospers on Dehuminazing Work (Essay Sample)

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Dangers of Economic Development that Prospers on Dehuminazing Work
The schism between the rich and the poor is worse today than when George Orwell composed The Road to Wigan Pier in 1936. The Industrial Revolution is usually hailed for improving the material standards of living for most people in Britain compared to pre-industrial Britain. The Industrial Revolution is a period of rapid development in the latter half of the eighteenth century that transformed largely rural, agrarian societies across Europe and the United States into industrialized, urban societies. One of its major economic benefits was the economy of scale. Goods that were once painstakingly crafted by hand started to be mass-produced by machines in industries. Britain was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution; hence, The Road to Wigan Pier is a masterpiece that examines the effect of the Industrial Revolution on ordinary citizens. Orwell’s persistent and masochistic association with the unprivileged and the unjust Industrial Revolution victims makes him a credible author of a novel that castigates the revolution. Given Orwell’s arguments and ideas in The Road to Wigan economic development raises the material standard of living but does so through work that some find dehumanizing is an evil development that should be resisted in the modern world.
Economic development that is driven by dehumanizing labor is a danger to human dignity. Rather than romanticizing the poor he encounters, Orwell gave a vivid description of what he saw. One of the plain descriptions involves a middle-aged man named Joe, who is reduced to a mere boy due to lack of responsibility. Like most of the men that Orwell encountered, Joe was “unmarried unemployed man, a derelict looking, a frankly ragged creature with a round, almost childish face” (Orwell 4). The description shows that most men that Orwell encountered were devoid of human dignity. In other words, economic development that tolerates dehumanizing labor steals employees' dignity, an indispensable aspect of the human spirit. Orwell makes it clear that workers during the Industrial Revolution were not valued and respected. The treatment goes against Kantian ethics, which requires people to be treated as an end instead of a means to an end. Therefore, the prosperity of economic development founded on the exploitation of workers only benefits a few rich individuals, setting a proposition of chaos in society.
In addition, economic development based on the exploitation of workers is unsustainable. The Great Depression's occurrence is a major sign that the foundation of the Industrial Revolution did not guarantee sustainability. Orwell authored The Road to Wigan Pier at the height of the Great Depression, and his depiction of the exploited lodgers that he stayed with is touching. Workers are an integral part of the economic system since they are a key driver of consumption. Poor working conditions are associated with low wages, which further reduces the purchasing power of workers. During periods of economic downturns, the plight of workers is best captured by Orwell’s ethnography of newspaper salesmen. Orwell writes, “Their job (newspaper-canvassers) seemed to me so hopeless, so appalling that I wondered how anyone could put up with such a thing when the prison was a possible alternative” (8). Therefore, although economic development that involves dehumanizing labor is unsustainable, the epitome of its evilness is felt during a recession where the conditions of the workers become desperate.
Moreover, economic development that raises the material standard of living at the expense of workers' welfare perpetuates a culture of a hand-to-mouth existence. A hand-to-mouth existence is a life where people hardly have enough food or money to live on’’’. Although economic development can lower the cost of living, low wages make it hard for least paid workers to afford quality living standards. Such an economic arraignment is plagued with insecurity and uncertainty among workers. There is no shortage of workers trapped in a hand-to-mouth existence in Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier. Orwell emphasizes with the downtrodden workers that he encounters. The canvassers’ job is at once possible to accomplish the tasks yet impossible in human terms. Orwell views canvassers as a group of hardworking men being exploited by large newspaper corporations in Britain. He writes, “The newspaper engage poor desperate wretches… who for a while making frantic efforts and keep their sales up to the minimum; then as the deadly work wears them down they are sacked, and freshmen are taken on” (Orwell 8). Hence, economic development does not raise the material standard of living when corporations are exploiting workers to the point of not affording the goods and services in the economy.
Additionally, economic development purporting to raise the material standard of living makes workers more desperate. Orwell provides a moving personal anecdote about the workers he knew were being exploited. The Road to Wigan Pier has the quality of pathos and Orwell’s attention to telling details. One of the moving instances is where a factory worker is so desperate that he stores food in a suitcase. For a country priding itself to be developing and enhancing the material standard of living, storing food in a suitcase is something that is out of place. In a developed economy, food does not belong to a suitcase. It belongs to a fridge or a cupboard in a kitchen. It is unfortunate that in a developing economy, workers can be homeless. Orwell writes, “I got to know two who were employed by one of the notorious weeklies. Neither of them could afford the pound a week which the Brookers charged for the full board” (9). Therefore, economic development that raises the material standards of living while forcing some workers to do dehumanizing labor is backward. Such workers are unable to afford the materials things needed to improve their living standards.
Class is one of Orwell’s chief preoccupations that exposes the dangers of economic development that neglect the worker’s welfare in terms of working conditions. Orwell exposes the different universe about which individuals were usually unaware and oftentimes wished to remain ignorant. Britain had become a nation where the rich and the poor lived parallel lives. This arrangement did not auger well with Orwell, who want a more just and equitable society. Economic development without consideration of working conditions is akin to an individual who enjoys eating chicken wings but is interested in knowing how chickens are raised or slaughtered. Whole average Britons enjoyed the improved material standards of living, oblivious of the plight of workers. However, Orwell was determined not to let them get away with being complicit to the exploitative economic system. The Road to Wigan Pier features memorable portraits of the miners’ lives and their heroic feats working under the earth. Orwell reminds the privileged class of the system that supports their allegedly higher intellectual calling. Orwell writes, “It raises in you a momentary doubt about your own status as an “intellectual” and a superior person generally” (30). Thus, classism created an environment that allowed exploitative practices to thrive under capitalism.
The economic exploitation that Orwell describes in The Road to Wigan Pier reveals the flip side of capitalism. Capitalist production was at the core of the Industrial Revolution. Its negative consequences were felt by workers. Capital production is usually seen as a type of commodity production that seeks to reap surplus value (Fuchs 60). For an exploitative capitalist system to continue, a capitalist needs new workers for quick r