Was the Industrial Revolution a good thing or a bad thing for the people of Britain?
The issue I am going to discuss is whether the industrial revolution was a good thing or a bad thing. This question is important because it brings across many arguments as there isn’t a straight yes or no answer to it. The reasons for this is because historians say that there are good things and bad things on the industrial revolution, as the many good things which happened were the improvements from the bad aspects which came first. As the two different aspects are equally balanced out.
My first point I want to make is the fact that many children are being forced to go out and work in factories so that they can earn money for there family in order so that they can live, which in other words is said to be child labour. There were many different kinds of jobs during the industrial revolution depending on how lucky you were very few children got employed in a trade, the less lucky ones worked on farms or helped with spinning cloth. When the new types of work came about and the industries got bigger there were more jobs for children to do as there were many more factories and workplaces for them to earn money. Factory and mine owners became rich but the workers became very poor as they were paid low wages, and lived in unhealthy, overcrowded conditions. Most factory and Coal mine jobs were very hard and mostly carried out by children as the places could be very small and require you to work quickly. Usually people would have to work for very long hours with little breaks and no fresh air including children. Children often had to work in very dangerous conditions resulting in injuries or even death. Even children as young as five worked in factories. There was no education for the poor, so it was very unlikely they could get better paid jobs when they were older. Children were paid very little because they were younger. Most children had no choice but to go out and work because they needed to work to help there families earn money to live.