Lesson Three: The Effects of Classical Liberalism

Entrepreneurial Class

Conditions

Working Class

Conditions

Work Environment

·       Those that worked were in managerial positions that did not involve heavy labour

·       Often took long vacations with family

·       Employed working class people for very little money to take care of household chores

·       Wealthy - did not share profits fairly with workers

• Workers treated cruelly and inhumanely:
• workplace abuse; beatings for minor infractions
• hard work with unreasonably long hours with few breaks and no vacation time; workers often fined for bathroom breaks
• child labour; young children working mainly to help add to small family incomes
• blacklisting; if workers wanted to quit on job to work elsewhere, employer would blacklist him or her so that not hired elsewhere
• unhealthy and unsafe work environment; toxic fumes and materials, equipment without safety features, etc.
• unjust firing practices; threat of being fired for minor infractions; injury often resulted in firing (no longer useful)

Living Environment

·       Able to afford the finest food, clothing, and shelter in the best parts of cities (where waste and sewage was disposal was taken care of)

·       Able to afford medical care and education

·       City slums: Because of low wages, workers could hardly afford rent; owning a house was out of the question no matter how hard one worked; landlords would not improve housing because that decreased rent profits

·       Pollution: Factories dumped their waste directly into environment nearby, which was where workers lived.

·       Overcrowding: City infrastructures did not support the numerous workers; clean water, sewage and waste disposal, garbage collection was unavailable; inexpensive housing usually nonexistent or affordable, so families lived often within one room of rundown apartments. (No birth control meant large families; life spans were short.)

·       Health care: Doctors and hospitals (poorly skilled) were financially unavailable for the average worker; illness and workplace accidents took their toll.

·       Education: Schooling was not publicly funded; education was largely unavailable to working class.

Government Involvement

•  Other than to make laws protecting private property and maintaining security, governments did not get involved. When they did, governments usually made laws benefiting the rich and the entrepreneurs.

• Government did little to protect the rights and freedoms of the working classes, and it did not provide for education, health care, or city infrastructure (waste and sewage disposal).