The effect of industrial revolution was not just factory owners being wealthier or more powerful. It raised the workers wages and increased living standards for everyone
Understanding history is not just about passing verdicts on the outcomes with the benefit of hindsight. It's about understanding the process of change, why it happened, and how people living at the time viewed the changes and reacted to them.
An article like this sheds light on a lot of those topics, including people's beliefs about their economic rights at that time. It corrects common misconceptions about the Luddites. It demonstrates that the outcomes of the Industrial Revolution were not inevitable, and that people's understanding of what was going on at the time was very different than our understanding of it today. It opens the door to further research for people interested in the topic. It doesn't deserve a handwavy dismissal.
That said, I think the issue is largely one of mindset. Although we don't live very long, we are unusually adaptable, a feature which becomes lost in the comfort of an agreeable status quo. Unfortunately for the Luddites, it wasn't a feature that manifested again when that status quo was upended.
Yes, the industrial revolution enabled increased wages and living standards. But for them to actually happen, and trickle down to workers, people had to fight hard. The modern working standards are literally written in tears and blood of our forefathers.
that's the unfortunate truth about "wealth redistribution" (aka "inequality").
it's quite logical : those who have much don't feel the need to give as much as those who feel the need to have more.
Also:
> literally written in tears and blood
figuratively; tears and blood make shit writing materials.
http://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2012/Aug/merriam-webster-is-roll...
You're welcome to use the word as you please. The majority of the English speaking world, however, disagrees with you. If you care about clarity and precision, "literally" is a word to avoid.
Right, but the pitch goes something like this: "sometime after you and your family have starved to death, people you've never met will enjoy increased living standards, and they won't even remember you or your sacrifice, pretty neat huh?".
Not very compelling, is it? Would you take that deal? Something like it is being offered to Workers in the trucking industry right now...
The people at the top of the economic foodchain are usually for too short-sighted to consider what will happen then.
Which doesn't matter much when you and your family starves -- as their families did, and workers fucked over by globalization and automation do.
One could shrug it off as "the cost of progress", but that's a luxury one has only when they are among those benefiting from it.
Technological advances -> new industries -> social tensions and hard political battle -> social changes -> living standards increased for everyone.