The industrial Revolution - Universitat per a Majors

V. ConclusionsLooking back to before the Industrial Revolution, when most people livedon farms or, at most, in small villages, we imagine how relaxing it wouldbe, but, in fact, it was far from it. Indeed, life was very hard; some hadtheir own piece of land while others worked for the big landowners, butthere was no security. If the weather was bad one year, then the cropsfailed, the landowners did not need workers and the majority of peoplewent hungry. There was little or no medical service, people died young andthe infant mortality rate was very high. With innovations in farmmachinery, fewer workers were needed and the cottage industrydisappeared, with machines in factories doing all the work instead.The great need for work made the farmers and artisans move to the largetowns and cities. Although there were jobs to be had, the conditions wereoften very bad and dangerous, especially for children, but, with time, lawswere passed which restricted working hours and provided formal educationfor the young. Health and life expectancy improved greatly with theadvances in medicine.Better communications have led to easier travel, facilitating commerce,thus improving the economy.In our European society working hours are getting shorter and there isrising unemployment, but social services provide health care and a certainamount of security. We have more time for leisure, but not necessarily themoney we would like to have to enjoy it. This is probably why there arestill many people who work long hours, often with more than one job,especially women who do a normal paid job and look after the home andchildren. All this, of course, can cause a terrible amount of stress, which isa far too frequent feature nowadays.Our consumption society never stops telling us, through our newcommunications systems - television, radio, telephone, etc. - about all thethings we “need” to make our lives better, which, in turn, makes us try toearn, or borrow, more money in able to buy them.With the rise in stress and dissatisfaction at not having everything we wantcomes a rise in violence, especially domestic, which is reaching frighteningproportions.42