Industrialization: Good or Bad?

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the introduction of industrialization and its negative impact on individuals. The paper looks at harsh factory conditions but also illustrates how the Great Depression was only alleviated by the infusion of new technology. Furthermore, the paper examines Wal-Mart's effects on the environment and on labor practices but also shows how farmers and fishermen's original occupations were not any better. The paper concludes that the answer to poverty in the developing world is not the idealization of the past, pastoral way of the life of the farmer, but to use industrialization in a humane manner to enrich workers as well as corporations.

From the Paper:

"Society today revolves around the machine. Witness how quickly a modern office comes to a standstill if the Internet is down, or how children will wander around their home, aimless and bored, if the cable connection has been lost. It is very tempting to be sympathetic to the claim of the British philosopher Bertrand Russell that in: "a society built on the machine there is a diminution in the value and independence of the individual." But African-American slaves of the pre-industrialized South would hardly agree, as their bodily labor sustained the economy of the agriculturally based region, unlike the free-wage North."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Fishman, Charles. "Global fishiness." Excerpt from The Wal-Mart Effect at Salon.com.23 Jan 2006. 2 May 2007. http://www.salon.com/tech/books/2006/01/23/walmart_effect/
• "From the New Deal to a New Century: About TVA." TVA Government Website. 2007.2 May 2007. http://www.tva.gov/abouttva/history.htm

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