The Industrial Revolution Essay Example for Free

The Industrial Revolution Essay From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the present day, the structure and culture of the American workplace have been affected by many forces, among them capitalism, technology, globalization, and issues of equality. Describe these forces in detail and analyze their impact on the structure and culture workplace. Capitalism Capitalism is an economic system that is based on the private ownership of capital or the means of production and the creation of goods and services for profit. Some of the elements central to capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets and a price system. Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of Mercantilism. It was fostered by the Reformation, which sanctioned hard work and frugality, and by the rise of the industry during the Industrial Revolution, especially the English textile industry. Unlike earlier systems, capitalism used the excess of production over consumption to enlarge productive capacity rather than investing it in economically unproductive enterprises such as palaces or cathedrals. It is now widely recognized that a new global economy is emerging. It is characterized by the transnational flow of capital, goods, services and labor; by greater national specialization and increased competition across borders; and by the use of new technologies that radically disrupt traditional ways of doing business. In seeking competitive advantage, the United States has targeted a niche for itself at the top of the world economy: It has opted to use the highest technology, to have the most capital- and knowledge-intensive industries, and to produce the highest quality and highest value-added goods and services. Surfing the crest of this giant wave is not easy: To maintain its prosperity, the U. S. economy must be in a state of constant change, driven by a process of â€Å"creative destruction. † Inefficient products, companies and entire industries continually need to be replaced. Capitalism is the social system which now exists in all countries of the world. Under this system, the means for producing and distributing goods (the land, factories, technology, transport system etc. ) are owned by a small minority of people. we refer to this group of people as the capitalist class. The majority of people must sell their ability to work in return for a wage or salary. the working class are paid to produce goods and services which are then sold for a profit. The profit is gained by the capitalist class because they can make more money selling what we have produced. In this sense, the working class are exploited by the capitalist class. The capitalist live off the profits they obtain from exploiting the working class whilst reinvesting some of their profits for the further accumulation of wealth. This is what we mean when we say there are two classes in society. It is a claim based upon simple facts about the society we live in today. This class division is the essential feature of capitalism. It may be popular to talk about various other â€Å"classes† exiting such as the â€Å"middle class†, but it is the two classes defined her that are the key to understanding capitalism. Profits In capitalism, the motive for producing goods and services is to sell them and make a profit. this is not done to necessarily satisfy the needs of the people. The products of capitalist production have to find a buyer, of course, but this is only incidental to the main aim of making a profit, of ending up with more money than was originally invested. This is not a theory that we have thought up but a fact you can easily confirm for yourself by reading financial reports from the press and other source. Production is started is started not by what consumers are prepared to pay for to satisfy their needs but by what the capitalists calculate can be sold at a profit. Those goods may satisfy human needs but those needs will not be met if people don’t have the money to purchase them. The profit motive is not just the result of greed on behalf of individual capitalists. Many times they do not have a choice about it. The need to make a profit is imposed on capitalist as a condition for not losing their investments and their position as capitalist. Competition with other capitalists forces them to reinvest as much of their profits as they can afford to keep their means and methods of production up to date. As you will see, we hold that it is the class division and profit motive of capitalism that is at the root of most of the world’s problems today, from starvation to war, to alienation and crim. Every aspect of our lives is subordinated to the worst excesses of the drive to make profit. In capitalist society, our real needs will only ever come a poor second to the requirements of profit. Technology Technology is defined as the making, modification, usage and knowledge of tools, machines, crafts, techniques, systems, methods of organization, in order to solve a problem, improve a preexisting solutions to a problem, achieve a goal, handle an applied input/output relation or perform a specific function.