When I think of the Industrial Revolution I think of supply and demand. The Industrial Revolution took place from the 18th to 19th centuries, during a period in which many areas were mostly rural societies in Europe and America, before becoming industrialized. Then, urban city life was born, ultimately creating power driven machinery, factories, jobs and economic development.
Before the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing was often prepared in people’s homes or farms using basic tools or simple machines. Industrialization caused a massive change in mass production of goods such as textiles and iron. Also, the transportation industry experienced substantial renovation during the Industrial Revolution due to steam engines. The Industrial Revolution sounds like an astounding leap forward in modern times, as well as a better quality of life and jobs for everyone. Sadly, the Industrial Revolution had a dark side that still haunt us to this very day.
Factory workers’ wages were low and working environments were often dangerous and tedious. Workers had no job security and few rights forget about OSHA. Children of poor families where forced to quit school and became part of the developing work force and often worked long hours, doing extremely dangerous jobs such as cleaning unsafe machinery.
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With his boom in the industry came a boom in the population, creating the massive birth rate of the 1700s. The world’s human population grew by about 57 percent, or 700 million, and it would stretch to one billion in 1800, before reaching two billion people in 1927. This was a huge amount of growth in terms of population. Not to mention, all of these people would need resources including food, water, living space and waste by-products. To begin with, this was taxing on plants and other natural recourses. With this growing population, supply and demand grew, more factories came about, there were more jobs, more trains, more iron, more money, but ultimately less caring about the earth.
During the Industrial Revolution, there was this explosion in population and industry power. Something referred to as fossil fuel came about, which mainly was coal yes, coal fueled the beating heart of the Industrial Revolution. Sadly, this fossil fuel was not heart healthy because coal increases substantial amounts of new carbon dioxide to the atmosphere (Brooks, 2018).
Carbon dioxide is a dangerous greenhouse gas that leads to global warming, which is a grave problem in today’s society. Today we are facing the consequences of greenhouse gas and trying to find and implement clean renewable energy. Also, coal mining takes a dangerous and devious toll on the earth, as coal mining requires large areas of land to be disturbed. Further, run offs produce water pollution, which can affect all plant and animal life including humans, not to mention the people’s poor lungs and overall health who work in the dark depths of the treacherous coil mines.
How did the people, machinery and coal get from one place to another? Not by horse or wagons, but by train. In 1767, Richard Reynolds fashioned a set of rails for moving the infimum coal at Coalbrookdale; these were initially wood but became iron rails, iron rails that were forged by sweltering coal fires. The idea of railroads moved forward like blitzkrieg, linking factories minds and cities. Were there benefits of these railroads? Of course, there were benefits it was positively revolutionary being able to move everything you need so simply and at a low cost. Along with rails ways sprung up new towns, businesses and shops with no regard for the environmental impact or the habit of the wild life and vegetation (Brooks, 2018). Thus, damaging the ecosystem and possibly caused a criminal chain reaction killing plants and animals.
Around the 1960s and 1970s, there was a movement to protect the environment due to oil spills, military testing and pollution from factories and cars. The environmental movement focused its power on pollution and successfully pressured Congress to pass measures to promote cleaner air and water. As the movement continued and grow, more concerns where brought to light such as the disposal of toxic waste. This movement speared worldwide, tracking the issues of ozone depletion and global warming.
This movement made way for laws to be put in place to protect our precious and vital environment. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Clean Air Act (CAA) are the wide-ranging federal laws that regulate air emissions for stationary and mobile sources. The EPA also established the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health and public welfare and to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants. These laws have had great success according to the EPA.
EPA has developed many renewable energy and energy efficiency programs designed to help people all over the United States. Further, there is now an influence on policy makers and energy supplier’s byway of providing information, creating forums between the public and private sector and providing technical assistance and information adopt energy efficiency and renewable energy policies and practices. There is also a slurry of green and renewable energy available to us such as solar, wind, hybrid cars, stable food sources and locally farmed foods.
While Industrial Revolution propelled human progress to astonishing levels, it came at extraordinary costs to the environment, and ultimately to the health and wellbeing of all living things. Industrial Revolution was a domino effect that started, prompting the need for more space, food, water, waste and other resources due to all of the people. To meet the need, mass production gave way to factories, which gave way to fuel for the factories, which gave way to a rail system to move people and equipment and fuel. All of this came at the sake of the earth and its fragile habits. These three factors snowballed, causing damage to our world and taught us a harsh lesson in the price of progress.
How Could Minimum Wage Increase Help The Poor
It has long been debated whether the minimum wage would be beneficial for the poor. The minimum wage should be increased to help people from working-class families. The cost of living is so high, especially in major cities such as New York, that it is nearly unbearable to raise a family on a minimum wage income. A single-family has to make ends meet to survive on a minimum wage job. Living expenses are just too outrageous to simply live on a minimum wage alone. The minimum wage amount is crucial to the survival of the working class. To improve circumstances it is recommended that individuals seek a college education and government to increase the minimum wage.
In most households, the regular minimum wage offers a minimal contribution to family income. Employees who would benefit from an increase in minimum wages are full-time employees that work thirty-five or more hours. For families to survive today, the minimum wage needs to be increased as according to New York Governor Cuomo’s plan. “Since 1938, the minimum wage has only been raised 22 times. The last time the minimum wage was raised was in 2009, when it was brought to $7.25 per hour (Lambardo). The increase of minimum wage is long overdue.
The cost of education is unaffordable for minimum wage workers and working families. It is very important to receive a college degree in today’s world. A college degree is often considered a necessity rather than an option for most employers who are seeking to hire workers nowadays. With education, people can obtain a better job or career to better themselves. Due to impoverished families, many students must pay for college out of pocket for a college degree or obtain loans. If the minimum wage is not increased; these individuals are at a disadvantage if they are obtaining school loans. The debt created from school loans will hinder them to improve their financial situations. Many low-income individuals have either delayed college entry or postpone college to avoid hefty student loan debt. It is a vicious cycle; it minimum wage is not increased low-income individuals cannot change their circumstances. They cannot attend college and hence unable to support themselves. If the minimum wage is increased, numerous people can continue their education. Advanced education is necessary because the work requirement for a decent paying job is highly dependent on it. The education component also includes technology updates that individuals will learn in school.
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To be competitive in this current society both employers and employees must be up to date with new technology. There are some employers that are willing to invest in their employee’s future. These employers have tuition reimbursement programs. Individuals that work for such employers and get paid a minimum wage are fortunate. However, such employers are few and not the case for most low-income individuals. It is important to reiterate that advanced education is necessary and increasing the minimum wage will afford more individuals the opportunity to seek financial success.
There are many benefits to raising the minimum wage rate such as it would consumer spending while reducing reliance on government funding for basic needs. The increase will specifically help those working-class families. They will no longer have to live check to check. “The Economic Policy Institute reports that a rise in the federal minimum wage to $12 per hour in the United States by 2020 would reduce public assistance spending by $17 billion each year. These savings could then be used to strengthen the other social safety net programs which are operated by the government. At the current minimum wage level, almost 60% of workers receive some type of public assistance, for themselves or through a family member. For workers earning between $12.17-$14.72 per hour, those receiving public assistance is cut in half. Even in prices went up because there was more money within local economies, most households would be better off with the higher minimum wage than they were using public assistance programs” (Lambardo). To be clear public assistance will not be gone; however, the number of help families will require will be reduced. This can help save government funding and allow money to be reallocated to other important issues such as education. Families will be spending more on other items like clothing, vacations etc. that helps stimulate the economy.
An increase in the minimum wage is needed to help individuals’ access basic needs such food, shelter and medical assistance. All expenses from schooling, food, and medication have increased. As welfare reform services the poorest families to rely on their salaries from low paying jobs, I believe an increase in a minimum wage will help to minimize poverty. An increase in a minimum wage will also inspire people to go get jobs and not rely on public assistance. Individuals would feel that they are getting a reasonable pay rate for their job. I know people that are receiving more money from public assistant than a person that is making minimum wage. The real question is “Why would a person get a job making minimum wages when they can get public assistance, Medicaid, food stamps, and cash assistance for not working?” In such cases, it cost the taxpayers more money to support low-income individuals.
Raising the minimum wage can lower unemployment. Individuals with higher wages can increase tax revenues. An increase in the minimum wage also benefits employers as well in the long run. The retention rate is high, and they don’t have to deal with high turnover. This means that employers don’t have to spend a lot on training and can focus on increasing profit. When pay is low employees tend to seek additional employment or simply seek employers that are willing to pay them more. When the minimum wage is low, workers tend to seek a better-paying job in other companies. When workers stay in a job for a longer period, it can reduce businesses’ turnover rates and reduce training and hiring costs as mentioned previously. As a result, it is beneficial to both the employers and employees to increase the minimum wage.
An additional benefit of raising the minimum wage includes allowing people to have more savings. This can assist them in home purchasing, which is a major problem in cosmopolitan cities. Currently, many people from working-class backgrounds would share housing with multiple roommates to lower the cost. By raising the minimum wage, it can solve this problem. When people have more savings, they will likely purchase more goods. As a result, this can also be beneficial for the country’s economy. “This can increase production as demand goes up which will then increase the gross domestic product (GDP). “When a country’s GDP is high it means that the country is increasing the amount of production that is taking place in the economy and the citizens have a higher income and hence are spending more” (Hunter).
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), raising the minimum wage can bring many people out of poverty. They stated that a minimum wage hike to $10.10 can raise average family income below the poverty line by 2.8 percent. In addition, it can also reduce the number of people living in poverty by 900,000. Although some people would lose their jobs because a rise in the minimum wage can cause employers to demand lest labor. The overall benefits of raising the minimum wage would outweigh the cost.
In conclusion, raising the minimum wage would reward those coming from working-class backgrounds. It allows them to make ends meet and lower their financial burden. It would afford them access to an advanced education, which will be beneficial to their financial success and possible to secure generational wealth. It will help employers to increase profits and the economy. An increase in the minimum wage improves the quality of life and society as a whole. It is said that as of January of 2019, the New York State minimum wage will increase to $15.00 an hour; based on research this is a great decision for all stakeholders involved.
