Social Changes

• Industrial Revolution completely changed people’s lives.

• Average workday – 14-16 hours per day.

• Average work week – 6 days.

• Wages:– Men - $1.50 - $2.50 per week.– Women - $.75 - $1.00 per week.– Children - $.25 - $.50 per week.

• Factories were hot and unventilated.

• As factories were in cities, massive movement of people to cities.– Called urbanization.

• Workers were unskilled and made little money.– Lived in cramped apartment houses called

tenements.

• No insurance, sick time, vacation time, worker’s comp.– If you were sick/injured/late, you were fired.

Tenements

Political Philosophies• Many were unhappy with the situations of

the workers.

• Led to many new political philosophies.

• Humanitarianism.– Biggest philosophy.– Felt people should work to improve the lives

of those around them.– Pushed factory owners for better pay, shorter

hours, better conditions.– Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.

• Liberalism.– Focused on individual personal liberty.– Everyone should be treated equally under the

law.– Did not believe in true democracy – felt only

property owners should be able to participate in gov’t.

• Utilitarianism.– Founded by Jeremy Bentham.– Believed that gov’t should work for the

greatest good for the greatest number of people.

– Laws and gov’t programs should be judged by their usefulness.

– Gov’t should stay out of people’s lives as much as possible, but should educate the people.

• Socialism.– Most important philosophy.– Started by Karl Marx.– Personal interests should be put aside for the

interests of society as a whole.– Use democratic methods to redistribute

wealth from rich to poor.

• Extreme form of Socialism is Communism.– Dictatorship, gov’t redistributes wealth by

force. – Gov’t owns and controls everything.

•SOCIALISM DOES NOT WORK!

• People are lazy, greedy and do not work well together.

Karl Marx