Steam trains and train tracks were being built to expand access across the United States. We also saw the production and use of steam boats which were used to transport people and products across the county which had vastly changed from the horse and buggy days (Annenberg 2013). The two most significant social consequences of this time were living conditions and labor laws. The living conditions were poor. Most people who worked in the factories lived in the factories which had little living space, lack of proper ventilation and lack of proper hygiene (Wikipedia).
Although wages increased at the end of the nineteenth century, many people still lived in horrible poverty. They faced problems of: • Poor housing. • Low wages. • Unemployment. • Illness (if a worker was ill he/she could not earn money).
The Great Depression in Canada The Great Depression in Canada was a very difficult time. Almost everybody was affected by this brutal time period. The Great Depression profoundly affected the family unit. Children found themselves in orphanages and were working for a very small pay and out of school. Men struggled to maintain and find jobs to support his family, and women struggled to put food on the table and care for her children with the little or no money that the men brought home.
Many workers lost hearing from loud machinery, lost limbs in hazardous equipment, and even lost their life due to the apathy of factory owners. The pay for such jobs remained meager despite these risky conditions. The average blue collar employee received $3.50 an hour, barely enough to get by in society. To make matters worse, workers were forced to work long hours during the week, usually over ten hours a day for six to seven days a week. With such appalling conditions, industrial workers were forced into action.
Migrant workers lived on the plantation in either little shacks, or canvas tents, and worked more than 10 hours a day, for not much pay. These workers in the fields relied on their pay, and now they were not getting paid, and that angered the workers. The angered workers were finally seeing their inhumane living conditions for what they were. As the rain poured, their canvas tents were soaking wet with rainwater, and the floor, which was the ground, was covered in mud. “The beating rain worked at the canvas until it penetrated and sent streams down…” (554).With all this rain coming to the California valley, sickness and disease also hit the plantation.
The population was estimated to have dropped 50-60%, so the prices of goods rapidly dropped, since there were so few people still alive to buy it. The lower levels of the social chain, like the peasants, serfs, farmers, and factory workers were struck the hardest. (Pollama) Since their living and work conditions were not very sanitary, and their living spaces were often cramped and dirty, they were the easiest targets for the plague. All of the jobs that these people had were now open, and available for people to take. Since the serf population had gotten ridiculously low, plantation owners were forced to start paying workers to tend the farms.
Cyclical unemployment= caused by periodic slumps b) Structural unemployment= caused by the long-term decline of certain industries. 19. In 1934, Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales had 62% male unemployment, Mary port in Cumberland had over 50% unemployed and Jarrow in the north east has around 70%. These towns suffered the most because of the amount of staple industries that existed. 20.
Geographic and Environmental Factors There are many reasons that people migrate to other locations. Sometimes it is due to weather, famine, war or violence, and fear of persecution to name a few. This is a discussion of two situations that lead to the expansion of the United States, the development and expansion of Egypt and the diffusion of potatoes from an early society to modern day use. Environmental or Physical Geographic Factors Irish Potato Famine In the mid-1800s The Irish potato famine lasted for six years and led to the death of over one million people and caused an additional one million people to leave Ireland. Ireland was among one of the poorest nations in the world during this time, the residents relied heavily on eating potatoes on a daily basis.
Similar to the Joad family in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath", about 40% of migrant farmers wound up in the San Joaquin Valley, picking fruit and cotton. Life for migrant workers was hard. They were paid by the amount of fruit and cotton picked, with earnings ranging from seventy-five cents to $1.25 a day. Out of these low wages they had to payment rent on their leaky and rough shack that usually had only a dirt floor and no plumbing. Oftentimes the migrants had to buy their supplies
Unemployment was very high. The fact that most people received low wages was made worse by the irregular, seasonal employment. Most persons were unemployed because work on the plantations was seasonal leaving some persons