america the prosperous

America the Prosperous: Both Good and Bad

Benjamin Franklin once quoted, "No gains without pain." I feel this quote is perfect to describe the 3rd American Revolution because America is prosperous today; but where we are today, is and outcome of us going through many struggles in the late 1800's to gain the greatness we have now.

The outcome of the Civil War was won by the Union side, which decided that the way of life for us would be industry. This choice brought many drastic changes forth and eventually what we now call the "Industrial Revolution." Transformations of making items by hand slowly quickly led to new innovations and caused things to be mass-produced. This helped the productivity level to go up and make the prices go down, which put a boom on our economy. It caused industries to produce products at a cheaper price so they could sell their products cheap enough for consumers.

United States

United States

United States

But while the industries were paying a cheap price to success, many others were paying the higher price. Urban workers were so poor that they would do anything for a little bit of money. The workers were living in filth, working undesirable hours and being paid next to nothing for working unthinkable labor. The poverty in most places favored the wealthy owners of the industries instead of the workers--So was it really worth taking advantage of innocent people so our economy would survive? The many disadvantages to the poor urban people were the bad side of America gaining prosperity.

Another important factor of America becoming prosperous was the abundance of many natural resources. The United States were wealthy in lumber, oil, coal, and iron ore. The productivity level relied on these natural resources to make a large quantity of goods. As these resources stayed...