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> It took almost hundred years from the start of the industrial revolution before real wages started to grow. Even the most pessimistic view suggests that real
by ctlby 11y ago
> It took almost hundred years from the start of the industrial revolution before real wages started to grow.
Even the most pessimistic view suggests that real wages grew, especially after the conclusion of the Napoleanic Wars. [1]
> The real benefits from industrialization were realized after hard political changes.
The real benefits of industrialization were immediately realized via mass production of widely desired and previously unobtainable goods. This should be clear from migratory patterns: workers abandoned the countryside en masse (in spite of city living/working conditions) for a reason. Enclosure laws were not a major factor until 1845.
> You don't create middle class from mid 18th century society.
Of course you do. The rise of the managerial and professional classes is a direct consequence of the Industrial Revolution.
[1] http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/users/Allen/unpublished/pessimism-6.pdf http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/users/Allen/unpublished/pessimi...
- nabla9 11y ago>Of course you do. The rise of the managerial and professional classes is a direct consequence of the Industrial Revolution. Not without political changes. Nobody is saying that industrial revolution did not bring middle class or reduce poverty. It's just that whole society must change and that includes new politics, new laws protecting their new rights, etc. Some examples: - 1819: Factory Act limited child working hours to 12 hours per day. - 1832: any man owning a household worth £10 or more was allowed to vote, - 1867: some working men were allowed to vote. - 1874: Maximum weekly working hours per worker: 56.5 hours per week. - 1918: all men over 21 and women over 30 were able to vote. And that brings us back to the issue. Automation changes things and laws, rights and whole society must change.