Here is a summary and some thoughts on an article titled "Poverty", written by Michael B. Katz, history professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Both skilled and unskilled laborers suffered frequent periods of extreme hardships without government aid. Americans today don't realize how good they've got it compared to what their ancestors experienced.
Michael B. Katz is a professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, and an author of many books on the subject of poverty in America. His article titled “Poverty” examines poverty in America during the nineteenth-century; before there were government welfare programs. He discusses the reasons why there was poverty, the consequences of such hardships, and how Americans survived. With the birth of industrialization, and an ever increasing number of immigrants coming to America, poverty affected all levels of working class Americans; from the unskilled laborers to the highly skilled, at various times during the nineteenth-century. By contrasting the working class of America in the nineteenth-century with the middle class of today, this article should serve as an eye-opener for what America may be soon faced with: a severe depression with no government assistance.
During the early nineteenth-century, there were many reasons that the level of poverty increased in America. Prior to industrialization, Americans who were highly skilled craftsmen worked from their homes. They may have had an apprentice or two, and their excellent products were sold directly to appreciative customers. Before industrialization, both skilled and unskilled laborers could keep busy working year round, which provided either enough money to live in relative comfort, or at least survive. With the beginning of industrialization in the early 1800’s, innovations, machinery, and manufacturing on a large scale, forced skilled/unskilled/ laborers, and even women to take factory jobs. Manufacturing turned independent craftsmen into employees, and “they lost the flexibility that had marked artisan manufacture”, and new production methods “required less skill and less time to learn”, thus bombarding the labor pool with many young men. Mass immigration also created a glut of both highly skilled and unskilled laborers to pick from, and allowed employers to pay employees whatever they wanted to. Once an apprentice served his apprenticeship, he was fired by his employer, because the employer could pay new apprentices practically nothing, instead of having to pay full scale for a journeyman. Because transportation was limited, people walked to work. A fired laborer had to travel far away from home to find work. This created an America of transient laborers who were both broke and destitute; searching the country for work. Machinery created poverty for laborers working in agriculture.
Prior to the invention of threshing machines, farmers hired laborers during the winter months to thresh the wheat by hand. With the machines available, the laborers found themselves out of work during the winter months. This created incredible hardships. People lived on extremely tight budgets; so tight in fact, they could not afford to miss one day of work due to illness. And yet, illness was rampant, due to malnourishment and lack of proper health-care. Many farmers’ wives supplemented the family income by working at home as seamstresses, but with the increased number of factories producing clothing; the wives lost this valuable source of income. Adding to the problem of poverty for those in agriculture was crop failures due to drought and grasshoppers, and the pressure of the population increase on the availability of land. Farmers ran out of land to pass on to their children. All these scenarios helped to increase the demand for public assistance, which was very limited.
Without government assistance, people experiencing unbearable hardships found relief by turning to relatives who lived close by; to their church; to their friends, or to charities. During depressions, such as the “Panic of 1837”, even the well-to-do were reduced to being paupers; losing everything and fleeing the cities. People who were destitute experienced the hardships of disease and hunger, and the low wages of fifty cents per day, if one was fortunate enough to find work. The author makes it very clear: “The availability of work for every able-bodied person who really wants a job is one of the enduring myths of American history.” That same myth is being perpetuated by some today during America’s economic crisis. The truth is, with the banks contracting credit, unemployment is going to get worse before it gets better. The difference between the conditions of antebellum Americans suffering hardships, and Americans today suffering hardships, is that Americans today have both the federal and state governments to take care of their needs during a crisis. But that may change very soon.
The author does a good job of painting a picture of just how desperate the conditions were during the nineteenth-century for those who were poor. Because depressions and financial panics were frequent and severe, many people who were skilled at their craft and had saved a small nest egg could lose everything and end up destitute. So, it wasn’t always the unskilled laborers who suffered. Poverty was broad and all encompassing. This scenario sounds like experiences people have in third world countries; not America. Yet, this was in America that such suffering took place, and it is America today that is faced with the same hardships. Today, Americans have the cushion of government programs that provide food; unemployment benefits, and health-care. But with a national debt of over $14 trillion and growing, this may all change and the government assistance will end. Have Americans learned anything from their ancestors? I hope so.
“Poverty”
Michael B. Katz is a professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, and an author of many books on the subject of poverty in America. His article titled “Poverty” examines poverty in America during the nineteenth-century; before there were government welfare programs. He discusses the reasons why there was poverty, the consequences of such hardships, and how Americans survived. With the birth of industrialization, and an ever increasing number of immigrants coming to America, poverty affected all levels of working class Americans; from the unskilled laborers to the highly skilled, at various times during the nineteenth-century. By contrasting the working class of America in the nineteenth-century with the middle class of today, this article should serve as an eye-opener for what America may be soon faced with: a severe depression with no government assistance.
During the early nineteenth-century, there were many reasons that the level of poverty increased in America. Prior to industrialization, Americans who were highly skilled craftsmen worked from their homes. They may have had an apprentice or two, and their excellent products were sold directly to appreciative customers. Before industrialization, both skilled and unskilled laborers could keep busy working year round, which provided either enough money to live in relative comfort, or at least survive. With the beginning of industrialization in the early 1800’s, innovations, machinery, and manufacturing on a large scale, forced skilled/unskilled/ laborers, and even women to take factory jobs. Manufacturing turned independent craftsmen into employees, and “they lost the flexibility that had marked artisan manufacture”, and new production methods “required less skill and less time to learn”, thus bombarding the labor pool with many young men. Mass immigration also created a glut of both highly skilled and unskilled laborers to pick from, and allowed employers to pay employees whatever they wanted to. Once an apprentice served his apprenticeship, he was fired by his employer, because the employer could pay new apprentices practically nothing, instead of having to pay full scale for a journeyman. Because transportation was limited, people walked to work. A fired laborer had to travel far away from home to find work. This created an America of transient laborers who were both broke and destitute; searching the country for work. Machinery created poverty for laborers working in agriculture.
Prior to the invention of threshing machines, farmers hired laborers during the winter months to thresh the wheat by hand. With the machines available, the laborers found themselves out of work during the winter months. This created incredible hardships. People lived on extremely tight budgets; so tight in fact, they could not afford to miss one day of work due to illness. And yet, illness was rampant, due to malnourishment and lack of proper health-care. Many farmers’ wives supplemented the family income by working at home as seamstresses, but with the increased number of factories producing clothing; the wives lost this valuable source of income. Adding to the problem of poverty for those in agriculture was crop failures due to drought and grasshoppers, and the pressure of the population increase on the availability of land. Farmers ran out of land to pass on to their children. All these scenarios helped to increase the demand for public assistance, which was very limited.
Without government assistance, people experiencing unbearable hardships found relief by turning to relatives who lived close by; to their church; to their friends, or to charities. During depressions, such as the “Panic of 1837”, even the well-to-do were reduced to being paupers; losing everything and fleeing the cities. People who were destitute experienced the hardships of disease and hunger, and the low wages of fifty cents per day, if one was fortunate enough to find work. The author makes it very clear: “The availability of work for every able-bodied person who really wants a job is one of the enduring myths of American history.” That same myth is being perpetuated by some today during America’s economic crisis. The truth is, with the banks contracting credit, unemployment is going to get worse before it gets better. The difference between the conditions of antebellum Americans suffering hardships, and Americans today suffering hardships, is that Americans today have both the federal and state governments to take care of their needs during a crisis. But that may change very soon.
The author does a good job of painting a picture of just how desperate the conditions were during the nineteenth-century for those who were poor. Because depressions and financial panics were frequent and severe, many people who were skilled at their craft and had saved a small nest egg could lose everything and end up destitute. So, it wasn’t always the unskilled laborers who suffered. Poverty was broad and all encompassing. This scenario sounds like experiences people have in third world countries; not America. Yet, this was in America that such suffering took place, and it is America today that is faced with the same hardships. Today, Americans have the cushion of government programs that provide food; unemployment benefits, and health-care. But with a national debt of over $14 trillion and growing, this may all change and the government assistance will end. Have Americans learned anything from their ancestors? I hope so.
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