Responding to Liberalism

Responding to Liberalism

The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate;

has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in:

machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.Our knowledge has made us cynical,

our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little:

More than machinery we need humanity;More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.

Charlie Chaplin

ADAM SMITHCLASSICAL LIBERAL

THE WEALTH OF NATIONS

(1776)

market forces: Supply, demand, competition, guide the economy…

consumer is in charge

THE PURSUIT OF SELF-INTEREST (PROFIT MOTIVE) WILL RESULT IN COLLECTIVE WELL-BEING

• Industrial Revolution (Smith’s ideas…economic liberalism in action)

• 19th century….period of profound change

• new technologies

• impact on social organization

• meaning and purpose of life…money??

Efficiency…mechanization

Assembly line…Profits

Workers as a commodity

Robber Barons or Captain of Industry?

COLLECTIVE GOOD INDIVIDUAL INTEREST

Factories and Workers’ Housing

Poverty, hunger, disease, crime

WORK IN THE MINES

Coal crucial to the Industrial Revolution

Before 1842 there were no protection laws regarding age limits, hours or conditions of work

Teams of women employed to use windlass to lift coal and workers.

Men refused to do such work.

CHILDREN WORKING IN MINES

“I have been down six weeks and made 10 to 14 trips from the face to the top each day. I carry a full 56 lbs of coal in a wooden bucket. I work with sister Jesse and mother. It is dark the time we go” (girl 6 years old)

“I have a belt around my waist, and a chain passing between my legs, and I go on my hands and feet. The road is very steep and we…hold onto anything we can…I am not as strong as I was…I have drawn til I had the skin off me…” (32 year old woman)

IN THE TEXTILE MILLS

youngest children usually employed as scavengers and piecers

SCAVENGERS• picked up loose cotton from under

machinery• extremely dangerous, children were

expected to carry out the task while machines were still working

PIECERS• children had to lean over spinning

machines to repair broken threads• might walk 20 miles per day

UNCOMPLAINING ACCEPTANCE

Life, work conditions brutal and degrading

poverty, periodic unemployment, over-crowded and inadequate housing, bad work conditions, restricted opportunities

high incidence of dismemberment, disease, death

human existence is a struggle, survival is an end in itself

fatalistic attitude, ‘God gives and God takes away’

CRIPPLED

PARISH (PAUPER) APPRENTICES

• Many parents -unwilling to allow children to • work in textile factories.

• labour shortage - factory owners had to find other ways of obtaining workers.

• solution - buy children from orphanages and workhouses.

• Pauper apprentices - children signing contracts that virtually made them property of the factory owner

Apprentices who ran away were in danger of being sent to prison…potential runaways were sometimes placed in irons

Orphanges

Reforms put in motion by the Government…..

MINES ACT (1842)

• no females employed underground• no boys under 10 years old underground• nothing regulating hours of work

FACTORY ACT (1833)

• to improve conditions for children working in factories• no children under 9 years of age• reduced hours for children 9-18• children not to work at night• 2 hours schooling per day• four inspectors appointed for entire country

NEW POOR LAW (1834)

provide refuge for ailing & helpless

anyone accepting relief in ‘repellent’ workhouse must lack moral determination to survive

principle of ‘less eligibility’ – conditions insideworkhouse should never be better than those of

an independent laborer of lowest class

reduce cost of looking after the poor

encourage poor people to work hard to support themselves

workhouse intended to replace all other forms of relief

Reactions to industry

LUDDITES

The Luddites, a band of nineteenth century English handicraftsmen, were rioting in protest to the textile machinery that had taken them out of business.

Luddites destroyed thousands of pieces of machinery until they finally met their own demise around 1817 and the government was able to control Luddites riots.

During the Industrial Revolution, the laws and customs, which had been installed to protect the working class of England, were ignored and eventually abandoned.

For example, the Minimum Wage Bill of 1808 decreased minimum wage and the Combination Acts, banned trade unions, as well. These were just some of the many sparks which drove the Luddites to rebellion.

CHARLES DICKENS (1812 - 1870)

SOME OF HIS GREAT BOOKS

• Oliver Twist• Christmas Carol• Hard Times• Great Expectations• Is the good Samaritan a

bad economist?

"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, takingup a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slightprovision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time.Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousandsare in want of common comforts, sir."

"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.

"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

"And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. "Are they still inoperation?"

"They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not."

"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" said Scrooge.

"Both very busy, sir."

"Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurredto stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to hear it."

Labor Unions…Winnipeg 1919• For six weeks in the summer of 1919 the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba

was crippled by a massive and dramatic general strike. • Frustrated by unemployment, inflation, poor working conditions and

regional disparities after World War I, workers from both the private and public sectors joined forces to shut down or drastically reduce most services.

• The workers were orderly and peaceful, but the reaction from the employers, city council and the federal government was aggressive.

• The strike ended in "Bloody Saturday" when the Royal North-West Mounted Police attacked a gathering of strike supporters.

• Two strikers were killed, 30 wounded and many arrested. Workers won little in the strike, and it was another 20 years before collective bargaining was recognized in Canada.

Great Depression..1929

March to Ottawa…Regina Riot 1935

Over time rights of workers have improved…capitalism provides

excellent products at fair prices …but the economy is subject to inflation and unemployment

Alberta…winners and losers

This car is worth 5 million pounds… Bugatti Veyron

V16 engine 1000bhp with 9 radiators Top speed 405km/hr(!) 

Probably the most expensive car in the world with the most expensive number plate in the UAE

SELF INTEREST OR GREED?

THE INEVITABLE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM?...maybe so….

Out Sourcing

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9_iQim8Mtw