Tuesday, February 15, 2011

3, 2, 1 Summary

Three things I have learned
  1. I learned that the Industrial Revolution began in England because of their population and natural resources.
  2. I learned that the middle class was introduced into society at this time. This had a major role in society because the majority of people would fall into this category.
  3. I learned that a corporation is a business owned by stockholders. I had no idea that a corporation was run this way, allowing everyone to make some money when the corporation is successful but the stockholders aren't responsible for the losses.
Two things I have found interesting
  1. I think it is interesting that no country has been able to have pure communism, and there probably will never be pure communism in the world.
  2. I thought it was interesting that England was the first to abolish slavery. It is nice to see who take the first step and paved the way for other countries to step closer to equality.
One question that i still have
  1. Why do people still try and use communism in society, when it has never worked in the past? Personally if my country started to implement communism into society, i would probably leave because it would probably end up being a dictatorship.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Communism

Communism was created by Karl Marx and was developed from socialism. Communism was actually described as a form of complete socialism in which the means of production would be owned by the people. In a pure communist society, there is no government or private property. The government is dissolved, and all the goods and services are shared equally between everyone in the society. Today communism exists in China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam, though they do not use a pure form of communism. These countries are run by dictators who became corrupt, and prevent the final stages of communism from taking place.

Child Labor Reform Laws

At this time everyone was expected to work, even children. The working conditions were terrible for everyone but even worse for childern because of their undeveloped bodies and immune system. Some children would be killed due to accidents in the work area and there would be nothing done to prevent another death. Once Parliament realized what was actually going on they decided to make some laws. The Factory act of 1833 made it so children under nine couldnt work and children from ages nine to twelve couldnt work more than eight hours a day. Children from ages thirteen to seventeen were only allowed to work twelve hours. The Mines Act made it so women and children couldn't work underground. Later, Parliament helped even further with the Ten Hours Act of 1847. This act made it so women and children in factories weren't allowed to work more than ten hours in a day.


I think that these reforms were necessary but they should have been put into play even earlier. These laws saved many lives and gave children an opportunity to get an education instead of working at an early age. The education would help them get a better and healthier job all due to these laws being established.

Connection Across Time

One connection across time is the car. After trains were built, people started thinking about private traveling. The trains would only go to specific locations and arrived at specific times. If someone wanted to go on a nice trip for a day their schedule would revolve around the train timing. With the car, people could make their own schedule, and do things on their own time. The inventor of the first car was Henry Ford, when he made the Model T.

Steamboat

The steamboat was created by Robert Fulton. He took a steam engine from Boulton and Watt and incorperated it into a boat. Fulton's first steamboat was used to ferry passengers in the Hudson river. This invention would allow the travel of people and goods to certain areas without the need to make new roads and railroads.

Spinning Jenny

The Spinning Jenny was created by James Hargreaves and named after his daughter. This invention let the worker use eight threads at once, making the spinning even faster. Weavers were still using their hnads to make products and this invention would pave the way for this to change.

Shuttle

This shuttle was invented by John Kay. The invention was a piece of wood that sped back and forth on wheels. The shuttle was attached to yarn and this doubled the product that any worker could do in a day. The Shuttle started the roll of inventions because cash prizes were given out for other ideas that were better than this shuttle.