Luz Victoria Simon Jasso

Co-Op - Sector 19
1/28/2016
Issue Proposal Essay
The Industrial Revolution took place between the 1820s and 1840s in England and
was the beginning to a new world of manufactured products and a society in which people
who had the capital could create big industries in order to accumulate great wealth and more
capital. Over the course of many years, one can see the drastic changes that took place not
only in England but also around the world because of the Industrial Revolution. In the system
of modern industrial capitalism, the system we live in today, a country's trade and industry are
controlled for profit. If we look through history and compare it to today, we can see that it often
results in a mindset where profit is valued more than the lives of people, therefore leading to
the unjust treatment of the working class, child labor, and the contamination of air, water, and
soil.
During the Industrial Revolution, industrial capitalism did not show up from one day to
the next. It started when pre industrial society was changed to allow room for inventors to
build new machinery (factories for mass production) and ways of living (public schools and
increased accessibility to hospitals). This gave the opportunity for people to invest and gain
money in new products. People who profited from this advancement in technology found this
society to work much more in their favor and were known as capitalist. For example, these
capitalist were the only ones who were allowed to vote and weren't given regulations from
their government when they hired laborers to work in their factories. Capitalist were given so
much freedom because they were the ones who managed most of the country's economy and
dictated where big sums of money would be invested.
When living in a society that prioritizes profit over the lives of people many social
issues will rise to the surface. During the Industrial Revolution child labor was a horrific
practice that was often used in factories and mines. Bosses of factories found it easier to hire
children instead of adults to run their machines because they were easier to control and were
often paid one tenth of what adults were paid. Many workers, some as young as six years of
age, worked up to ten to fourteen hours with minimal breaks for little pay. The machinery that
these children would work were often life threatening and put out spit out fumes and toxins
that the children would inhale.
Between the years 2000 and 2014, the number of child laborers has hit 168 million in
the entire world. During the Industrial Revolution, the owners of factories would gain profit
from hiring children as workers, today its not so different. In the private economy forced labor
generates over one hundred and fifty billion dollars illegally per year. The mistreatment of
children does not only consist of working in factories and streets, but of so much more.
Slavery, sexual exploitation, and illicit activities are a few of the many ways that big
corporations exploit their child laborers. Big corporations such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, and
Monsato are all (or have been) found guilty of using child labor for their own companies profit.