Between 1945-1968 the occupational structure is different from that in 1968-2012. People don’t get ahead in their class structures so easily. This connects with the Utchille chapter on the Steady Job decrease, Zweig shows now it’s a decrease in downward mobility. All you have to do is work hard to come up (American Dream) is the myth behind upward mobility. However it doesn’t guarantee a jump in the upper social class.
Women were another vulnerable group because they were always paid at a lower rate than men. There was no safety net for people who fell into poverty other than resorting to the ‘workhouse’ which had been established to deal with cases of extreme poverty in Trade unions had little power as the Taff Vale Incident of 1901 showed and Friendly Societies could only provide a limited amount of help. Attitudes to poverty in the early 20th century were quite unsympathetic many politicians from both the Liberal and Conservative party felt that poverty came from personal laziness. Both parties had an attitude of “laissez-faire” i.e. non interference from the government.
The women and children were paid less than the men. Because of the horrible conditions, in 1833, the Factory Act was passed. It set the minimum age to work at 9 and children under 18 years of age, could not work more than 12 hours a day. Later on in 1844, the Excessive Work act was passed, stating that women, also could not work more than 12 hours a day. Diseases were very present during the Industrial Revolution, although they did not have much of an impact of America taking action to help the issue.
As Strayer, Gatzke, and Harbison state in their textbook The Course of Civilization states “The basic trouble was that very few inhabitants of the empire believed that the old civilization was worth saving… the overwhelming majority of the population had been systematically excluded from political responsibilities. They could not organize to protect themselves; they could not serve in the army… Their economic plight was hopeless. Most of them were serfs bound to the soil, and the small urban groups saw their cities slipping into an economic decline.”(DBQ 2, Doc 1) What these men mean is the majority of the people (which were poor serfs) were excluded from political responsibilities. In addition, they could not protect themselves or serve in the army mainly because they were too poor (in order to be in the army, the people had to be wealthy) and the urban patricians saw their city fall into an economic downfall. What also led the downfall of the Western Roman Empire were the rise of Christianity and the large size
Outsourcing of jobs from the United States to other countries has been a growing matter over the past few decades. With the economy at a low, many industries and CEOs are wanting to expand their markets and factories overseas to developing countries that thirst for any job they can get their hands on. These workers are paid a substantial amount less to do the same work that normal Americans would do for a lot more. This is where the issue has many unemployed Americans buzzing. Most minimum wage workers that have lost their jobs to outsourcing absolutely cannot stand the idea whatsoever.
1] succinctly summarizes the de-skilling hypothesis for the Industrial Revolution: new technology brought about “a substitution of mechanical devices for human skills” and “inanimate power—in particular, steam—took the place of human and animal strength.” By several measures, ordinary factory workers were unskilled. Compared to workers in craft and professional occupations, factory workers earned lower wages. Also, factory jobs did not require formal education, training periods were brief, factory work was monotonous and factory workers lacked both social status and market power. Thus a wide body of evidence supports deskilling as a description of the change in the nature of the labor supply. But the de-skilling hypothesis is also about technology.
In the article No long term: New work and the corrosion of character by Richard Sennett he reveals that workers of today’s generation can no longer expect long term work. The emergence of capitalism is having a negative effect on the ability of people to find cohesion in their lives. The change from a pyramid bureaucracy to a network removes the platform that provided structure to workers of the past. Constant
Definition Essay Blue collar jobs The stereotype and social class of the blue-collar worker has changed over the years. This type of job was once thought to be reserved for people with no education or skills. Unlike a white-collar job that required mathematical and reading abilities. Blue-collar workers seem to only be qualified to perform manual labor. The term blue collar job typically refers to a job involving manual labor and receives hourly rate of pay rather than an annual salary.
Most people who live in communist countries live in poverty. It is very hard to move out of a communist country because most people don’t have enough money and the government makes it very hard for people to get in and out of the country. Most modern interpretations of communism have modified the 'equality' factor, to reward harder workers and offer fewer benefits to those who do not contribute. The U.S.S.R (used to cover most of Eastern Europe, now split up in to Russia and other smaller countries.) used to be run under a communist regime until people started demanding more freedom and the country also went bankrupt.
Some sociologists argue that the family has lost a number of its functions in modern industrial society. Institutions such as businesses, political parties, schools and welfare organisations now specialize in functions performed by the family. However, this is debatable. Talcott Parsons argued that the family has become almost completely functionless. It does not itself, except here and there, engage in much economic production; it is not a significant unit in the political power system; it is not a major direct agency of integration of the larger society.