Quite a few weeks ago, Mr. Stewart lectured on the immense growth of urban areas in the post-Civil War era. The "natural reproduction of people" (as quoted from Mr. Stewart) and the massive influx of immigrants contributed greatly to wild expansion and disorganization all throughout cities, be it sprawling apartments or Chicago's "El Train."
Last year in CWI, Mr. Bjorklund gave the class a set of documents on China's recent massive growth. Due to its closed-off-ness until the 20th century, China experienced an industrialization only recently, resulting in a similar wild growth to that of the US - except China's population is more than four times that of the US. This means that China is crazy booming with more and more young people and in its industrial production.
Almost everything we pick up today has the label "Made in China." China's factories line every province, and the pollution these factories make have created a huge smog cloud almost permanently ingrained into the atmosphere. However, only now is the government looking back on the damage done and looking forward to prevention. Litter and spit and cigarette butts cover the streets and sidewalks, and buildings sprawl up one after one to accommodate everyone, but there is so much disorganization that needs to be set straight.
This links back to the post-Civil War era, in that industrialization often leads to a significant increase in population and in disorganization. People have never experienced so much in so little time, and there is little time to think about how to plan for the next few years.
I wonder if there will ever be a chance for a country to industrialize neatly? Will developing countries always stay in their developing status, or will they be able to find a way to not go down the path that other super-countries have before? Is there any other way to develop industry quickly?
For sure, developing countries can progress past the "developing" status. Most likely, the process will take several generations (it took the U.S. up until WWII to become recognized as an economic power, and after, a superpower). But, for more than 150 years, the U.S. suffered through (or progressed, however you want to call it) countless setbacks-lack of sanitation, economic freedom, lack of certain freedoms...etc. Similarly, Great Britain and France went through the process of transforming; theirs' was was just as messy. Regarding your question whether a country could ever industrialize neatly, I believe it isn't possible because economic booms (as a byproduct of industrialization) coincide with market crashes, or panics. It's a cycle that we've seen in the U.S. over and over, even up until the present. And panics always create unemployment, hunger, and perhaps even strikes. Idealistically, the only way for a country to industrialize cleanly is to implement an extremely socialistic society (like Norway's) and make sure that every citizen is taken care of. Of course, realistically, there will always be at least two classes: the rich and the poor (as greed makes certain that one cannot exist without the other).
ReplyDeleteHey Claire! I think that you brought up a very interesting point that I really had to turn over in my head a few times. My first reaction was that industrialization could go neatly, as you put it, with the advances of new technology. However, upon reflection, it definitely goes a lot deeper than just that. For example, in many places around the world today, and even in our own country, this technology is creating a large gap between the industrialized areas and the unindustrialized, making the process even more messy. Like Kevin said, this industrialization widens many social factions and, in order to make the process smoother, everything/everybody needs to be on board with moving to a more industrialized nation. On that note, I had a family friend who once told me about a town that he grew up in in India that had both mule driven carts and fancy cars on the roads. Instead of making things easier, and instead of making industrialization faster, it would actually hinder the process because many people saw that they could maintain their own ways simultaneously with these newer ways. To answer your question, Claire, it seems to me that in reality there will always be some things that hinder the process of industrialization from ever being completely painless, but, as shown with the English industrial revolution, technology can help. That being said, developing countries that have a blend of "new" and "old" ways could be further slowed because it creates a widened gap between the two sides. Like I said before in reference to Kevin, everybody has to be taken care of and on the same page in order to move things forward, which doesn't always happen in the real world. Thanks for the post Claire! Really was a good way of making me connect our reading to the world we live in today.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is possible to industrialize neatly, especially in a capitalistic society because when a country industrializes in a capitalistic society there is almost no rules in the behalf of the labor force. You can still see the labor force in newly industrialized countries like China and India without much help from the government. Minimum salary is out of hand and the workers are manipulated by the leadership of the corporations.
However, I do believe that developing countries can become world super-powers if the government takes some responsibility for the work force and tries to protect their rights against the large corporations. The US only became a true world power after they began to give rights to the work force.
There is way, in some cases, to industrialize quickly. You first need either a large abundance of natural resources or a very cheap source of resources from outside your nation. In addition, you would a large reliable source of capitol to fund entrepreneurs and the industrialization that comes with them. Also, there needs to be an abundance of cheap labor to fund the new industries. On top of having natural resources, capitol and labor, you will need some help from already industrialized countries for experience and already established technology.
Thanks for bringing this up. It is always fun trying to connect what we are going through today to what we went through in the past.