Im very interested on the average American’s opinion about this topic.

35 comments

  2. I don’t think Americans have very strong opinions regarding the Industrial Revolution, other than it happened and it was good. I think most people rather enjoy the modern world

  6. I was unaware the British are recognized as the inventors of the Industrial Revolution, but overall it was a good thing.

  7. Breaking my back working on some landowner’s manor and dying at 45 would suck. But being chained to a soul-numbing desk or working in a factory until I’m 62 kinda sucks too.

    Life’s a bitch and then you die, I guess.

  8. Too soon to say. Obviously climate change is a pretty major and catastrophic consequence, but it’s at least theoretically possible that we’ll pull back from the brink on that. And there are also obviously positive consequences like an increased quality of life in most of the world, and the ability to create and ship incredibly important things like antibiotics and other medical supplies.

  9. It had its excesses, but glad it happened. I just don’t want to live in a world where subsidence farming is the very large proportion of the jobs. Weird of me, I know.

  11. If you aren’t choosing to live in a cave by yourself living off the land, you don’t get to be anti Industrial Revolution

  12. you can’t really attribute the industrial revolution to the british empire, that’s just where it first took off. several factors that were necessary for that to happen came from continental europe, and a few came from colonies. it could be argued that some came from the islamic world too.

    i don’t think there is a meaningful answer to whether the industrial revolution was good or bad, the question is far too vague. it happened, it irreversibly altered human culture, and i think it was more or less inevitable once the italian renaissance obtained. it can be interesting to speculate about how it may have been better or worse had it occurred to a different national culture or in a different historic moment.

    the average american wouldn’t have much of an opinion because they wouldn’t know the history. i doubt that your average person here even knows that this happened in england or in which century. i think most americans’ opinion on this reduces to an opinion about technology and culture.

  13. You wouldn’t have the device you asked this question on, let alone a platform to ask it, without the Industrial Revolution, so…

  14. It was inevitable that the IR would happen.

    Is it better that it happened in Britain vs France vs what-would-become-Germany, etc? I dunno.

    Was it possible, at that time, for it to have happened anywhere other than where it did? I’m gonna say no.

  17. I think the industrial revolution had good and bad, but I think that it was a net good. We can thank the IR for the fairly luxurious lives we live today.

  18. Undeniably good. People will complain about anything, but without the Industrial Revolution they wouldn’t have been factories in the northern United States and therefore no advantage over the Confederacy. The Civil War (and slavery) could have ended differently.

  19. The Industrial Revolution to me is just like a story I know called “The Puppy Who Lost His Way.” The world was changing, and the puppy was getting… bigger. So, you see, the puppy was like industry. In that, they were both lost in the woods. And nobody, especially the little boy – “society” – knew where to find ’em. Except that the puppy was a dog. But the industry, my friends, that… was a revolution.

  22. As a species, we clearly were not psychologically ready for it. But then, it’s hard to determine if we ever would have been, if we hadn’t taken the plunge.

    It still remains to be seen if we can survive its consequences. So, the jury’s still out.

  23. In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

  24. Not starving or having break back work for what we now consider cheap goods is pretty good.

  25. British socioeconomic conditions and coal deposits created the Industrial Revolution, not the British empire. Whether the British empire is good depends on your scope what impacts are considered, your moral framework, and your definition of “ the British empire”.

  26. Classic Brit acting like the industrial revolution was a thing done entirely by the Brits.

    Anyway to answer the actual question, why would it be a bad thing.

  28. The biggest thing to happen to humanity since agriculture. I have a job that isn’t manual labor. Extremely based.

  30. I think it’s a net positive because it has allowed more people to live easier, better lives which to me outweighs the climate destruction at the moment.

  32. I think there is an argument to be made that industrialism had an anti-colonial effect, in that power was built on the back of a powerful manufacturing hub rather than control of resources. Something many of us can agree is a good thing, right?

  35. It was great for humanity as a whole and if it didn’t start in England it would have inevitably started somewhere else just a little later.

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