The Rise Of The Standard Of Living

The industrial revolution was a period of great change for the entire world. As the name suggests the industrial revolution is when the world became more revolutionized. This brought upon many changes to the world, the way we used it, and the way we viewed it. Many technological advancements were made during the industrial revolution, many of them which made our lives easier, but when considering this question you have to realize all the effects caused by these new inventions. Inventions such as the car. We could go to places faster in them but they also made traveling by horse obsolete and it is considered one of the largest causes of global warming today. In my essay I

Urban sustainability is the idea that an urban area can be organised without excessive reliance on the surrounding countryside and be able to power itself with renewable sources of energy. The aim of this is to create the smallest possible environmental footprint and to produce the lowest quantity of pollution possible, to efficiently use land, compost used materials, recycle it or convert waste-to-energy, and to make the urban area overall contribution to climate change minimal. Therefore allowing the next generations and future generations to have the required resources without compromising them. However sustainably needs to focus also on other issues such as crime and economic factors.

During the late 1700s, production and manufacturing were centralized around people’s homes and farms. The majority of the work produced was done to provide for individual or community use; often hard labor, basic machines, and hand tools were used to carry out tasks. An era of powered machines and factories created the Industrial mark across the nation. Textile and iron industries developed the steam engine to help improve transportation and exchange to increase manufactured goods. While the impact improved the standard of living for a small majority, others a large majority remained poor and living in poverty. Urban cities that housed large manufacturing plants that provided jobs in often overcrowded cities and poor living conditions.

“Many current discussions about sustainability focus on the ways in which human activity...can be maintained in the future without exhausting all of our current resources… there has been a close correlation between the growth of human society and environmental degradation - as communities grow, the environment often declines” (603).

The Jacksonian period has been regarded as the era of the “common man”, this characterization only holds true in regard to politics. Jackson’s action in economic development was little different from when this era began. His view towards reforms were threatening and unwanting.

The era of the common man was a period between, 1824 through 1848, described to be the era of wealth, hope and power. During this period Andrew Jackson 's presidency helped United States grow as a nation and live up to the era’s name; through the economic developments, changing politics that benefited the common man, and different reform movements.

For decades now, our political and economic policy have been constructed around one idea: that if taxes on the rich go up, job creation will go down. This idea has been the backbone of Republican trickle-down Reagan-economics and has been scarcely challenged by Democrats. America’s economy as well as the global economy as a whole are facing extreme income inequality and this idea has only widened the gap. Our political system has been flooded with the money of the rich through lobbyists or super PACs, who then are the ones receiving the tax cuts and are garnering political favors by doing so, effectively moving us farther from a free and fair democracy, but rather towards oligarchy. The middle class has been fading away due to stagnating

Almost every American adults in the United States of America has to fill out a tax return to see if those still owe the government some money, or if those will get some back from the government. A recurring thought in the mind of many of these adults is,” How can my taxes be this high”. The middle class is supposed to be living comfortably and not have to live their lives worrying about money. But, in today’s United States the middle class has to worry about money every single day. The upper class is almost being penalized for earning too much money based on the percentages that they have to hand over to the government. The businesses that once were able to create jobs are now having to cut jobs because of the astronomical percentages

Post-World War II United States was a significant period of time when the lifestyle of American people changed dramatically. Long period of economic booms brought mass suburbanization and people purchased their own home appliances, houses, and automobiles. As a matter of fact, in the background of the change of American lifestyle, there were repeated technological innovations. Successful mass productions of goods accelerated buying activities, which promoted the economic development in the United States. This was the beginning of expansion of the middle class; some people get enough money to succeed in having a happy life in the United States with family. However, when the status of family in a community was considered, proper management of money was necessary to keep their lives. Handful choices of buying goods or products with satisfaction made American Dream possible, but buying activities changed the social status of people for better or worse at the same time.

How has the standard of living changed since the industrial revolution: In a positive way. Since the industrial revolution there have been so many career fields opened and a lot more fields means more jobs open.

Before the Industrial Revolution, Great Britain’s economy relied heavily on agriculture, which at that point of time was based a flawed system dating back to the Middle Ages. This system, known as the open field system, showed agricultural inefficiencies, and was disallowing of innovation. These inefficiencies eventually led to the privatization of land for agriculture, in an effort to solve what is now commonly referred to as “the tragedy of the commons”. Great Britain was now moving forward, and as the country (and continent) began enclosing their land, Britain began a period of modernization, with new technologies that would increase productivity in industry to a level never before seen. This is the period commonly referred to as the Industrial Revolution, and was an era of unprecedented growth in industry from the middle of the 18th century until around the middle of the 19th century. In 1760, 53% of the British population worked in agriculture. By 1840, that had dropped to 29%. The evolution from water and wind power to steam engines, as well as the creation of many pieces of machinery for the textile industry (such as the Spinning Jenny, which reduced the production time on yarn) vastly improved British manufacturing of goods, and the reliance on agriculture continued to drop. The development from an agricultural focus

Smart growth is choosing a better way for communities and cities to grow without hurting the environment. “For example, the recently emerged concept smart growth is inviting communities and metropolitan areas to address sprawl and purposely choose to develop in more environmentally sustainable ways. The concept recognizes that growth will occur and focuses on economic, environmental,

A sustainable city is when harmony is reached between the environment, economy and society. Environmentally, sustainable cities are ecologically friendly by using alternative sources of energy such as solar or wind power. Economically, governments should share a similar decision-making process with institutions and with the public by having a common belief in what should be done by improving sustainability. Sorensen, Marcotullio, and Grant (2004), find that a good decision making process consists of planning and control at the municipal and national political levels which would allow local level functions to become reinforced. Socially, sustainable cities are classless, meaning that there are no social divisions which serve as limits; leading to a more equal society. One of the many ideas would be using mixed housing to remove the class divisions between people. Also, city streets would be walkable, with businesses and services located at close proximity to promote a healthier lifestyle and serve as an alternative to using cars for transportation. The writers differ in their analysis when examining the approaches to improving sustainability in cities. This section will analyze four important ideas on how cities can become more sustainable.

The increasing amount of green house gases (GHG) released in the atmosphere is causing significant changes in the environment leading to unpredictable weather patterns and warming of the climate system is putting a great pressure on city development and infrastructures. This essay outlines three problems caused by climate change in urban areas, and evaluates the effectiveness of some of the mitigation and adaptation strategies. This essay reasons that mitigation and adaptation strategies need to work in synergy in order to address the situation effectively.

Urbanization, which is becoming a buzzword during the last few decades, is enlarging at a booming speed. It is predicted that 93 percents urban growth will occur to the year 2020, in the developing world (Elliot J.A, 1999). Generally speaking, more than half of the people around the world have been moved to cities, which led to a series of “matters” connected with people’s life that changed in a dramatical way. In this period, sustainable development, another buzzword during the past few years, came into people’s view and gradually became the mainstream of society development. Its definition is to make the development continue in a long term, which means allowing appropriate economic growth and industrialization without