Responses to Industrialization

         The reading that we had to analyze discussed the various responses to industrialization in regards to Catholic Social Teaching. Chapter 6 talks about the statements made by Leo and subsequent popes in regards to workers rights’, inequality, private property, gender roles, medical care, disabilities, unemployment, and labor unions. The Industrial Revolution brought about social classes that had not existed before. The more resources people had, the better off they were, which meant they were higher up on the social ladder. Many people went from living in rural areas to moving into urban areas. Owning property and various things became a really big deal. This can be seen when it says, “And, these scholars argue, just as the agricultural revolution ushered in major changes to human relations, including the very concepts of inequality, social hierarchy, slavery and private property, so did the industrial revolution introduce new social classes based on the control of productive resources, widespread movements of people from rural to urban areas, an unabashed glorification of ownership…”

            I remember that we learned about how the Native Americans were kicked out when the Europeans came. I also remember that the Europeans brought many diseases, which wiped out a large portion of Native Americans because they had never been exposed to these sicknesses and didn’t know how to cure their people. Although this had happened, I believe that we can learn from this and understand how things came to be. Industrialization benefited the economy a great deal, along with the technological advances such as the railroad and the cotton gin. People became were effective and efficient in their work, which led to an increase in production.

            We also discussed how workers were treated unfairly and had to endure poor working conditions. They were forced to work long hours for little pay. A quote that appealed to me was, “A society in which this right is systematically denied, in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach satisfactory levels of employment, cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can society attain social peace.” My interpretation of this quote is that if the right to work is denied, society, as a whole is affected and will immediately feel its effects. If workers are not treated properly, as they deserve to be treated for all of their hard work, you cannot expect them to be successful. If they are not happy, production will decline, as will the economy.

            I really liked the way that this quote was worded, “The true advancement of women requires that labor should be structured in such a way that women do not have to pay for their advancement by abandoning what is specific to them and at the expense of the family, in which women as mothers have an irreplaceable role.” Although I would want this to refer to both the mother and the father because it takes both to care for a child otherwise there is always something deficient or missing that the child needs in order to survive. This quote is important because it shows their ways of thinking and that they did not believe in preventing women from working. This is a fear that I personally have, about abandoning my child if I am given the opportunity to work a good job. But I am not the only one raising a child; it takes a mother and a father to raise a child and I feel as if people forget this.