Industrial Revolution

Working class improved by 1900?
The way Jack London describes the living conditions of the working class people in the 19 century is something that makes you wonder if conditions had improved. He writes about there being “the people of the abyss “(J London 1902). This is to influence the reader to believe the conditions in which they lived and worked to be some dark and endless pit of despair. It is in complete contrast has to what some historians would have you believe in that the conditions of the working class improved in this period. The problem with the working classes was that work was mainly in factories and to be near this work they had to live in the conditions that Jack London described. They mostly lived in back to back houses and cramped living quarters. They also had the use of shared toilet facilities that brought about disease has the health act that was being brought into action was not followed by councils as it should have been. There was a lot of the population in small and poor living facilities this was very common. This could lead to a lot of problems with people suffering from disease and not being able to afford doctors. If the reader looks at the way J London describes these towns and cities it cannot help but make you feel that living standards did not improve but maybe even got worse.
If we conclude with a question what does the standard of living really mean?   The historians who looked into the way people lived in the 19th century would use it as a sign of their happiness. The best way in calculating this is how much real wages the population was getting paid. The way we look at this is by saying real income is the money that is used for the cost of living. But this does not affect other things like health, unemployment, population and the condition of women and children (Clark Nardinelli 2013). These other factors are also very important in considering the improvement in living standards of the working class. The real indicator is the...