Karl Marx (Katharine Yan)

The Industrial Revolution has only helped the wealthy, the factory owners of the upper class. The poor have become poorer as a result of this industrialization. Small, family-owned businesses are now competing with huge factories. Artisans who continue to construct things by hand are doomed in a society that now relies on machines that can do the work ten times faster. These people certainly are not benefiting from the industrial revolution. The poor are forced to migrate to largely populated cities to earn low wages, working hours upon hours in terrible factory conditions doing repetitive tasks. They are treated like machines themselves, expected to do their part in the manufacturing process and get paid little for it. There is a widening gap between the upper and lower classes, in terms of their wealth. The poor are suffering, and eventually they will form labor unions and rebel against wealthy factory owners, leading to a complete overthrow of capitalism. We need to bridge the gap between the poor and the wealthy, creating a system in which everyone is equal, and everything is owned by the people. There should be no private property, and all goods and profits should be distributed equally. Only then can both the poor and the wealthy receive equal benefits. The Industrial Revolution is only positively impacting the wealthy factory owners, not the working class or artisans who have been replaced by machines.