Page 8 - Griffenomics

GRIFFENOMICS

ISSUE 1

8

INDUSTRIALISATION

FACT:

INDIA’S ECONOMY CURRENTLY GROWS AT A RATE OF 4.7% PER YEAR

N

owadays, industrialisation is giv-

en quite a hard time by the mod-

ern media.

If it’s not single-hand-

edly killing polar bears, it’s consigning

millions into a life of economic servitude.

The classic image of industrialisation

is of Britain’s dark Turner Mills, flanked

in smog and relying on child labour. Peo-

ple may also picture the new factories of

China, similarly flanked in smog and re-

lying on child labour, even more than the

schools of yesteryear. Yet no one thinks

of the almost unimaginable benefits that

are created by industrialisation. In the

most ruthlessly Wikipedia terms, indus-

trialisation is simply the transition be-

tween an agrarian society into an indus-

trial society. However, if one looks at the

true benefits that are rendered by indus-

trialisation, simply treating this as a rel-

atively unremarkable transition between

one part of an economic model to anoth-

er is missing the fundamental greatness

behind a process that has helped the

lives of innumerable people. However, as

much as I would wish to sing the praises

of industrialisation until the proverbi-

al cows come home, one cannot ignore

the potential eects of industrialisation,

with its rapid population growth, dra-

matic social change and environmental

impacts. All of these factors contribute

often to hugely adverse eects on both

society and the country as a whole. Nev-

ertheless, I believe that, perhaps naïvely,

there is a way to reconcile the great pow-

er of good that industrialisation can give

with the risks and consequences of such

a fundamental shift of a country’s so-

cio-economic position.

It is hard to communicate the great

eects that industrialisation has had

on society. In this situation, it is useful

to consider the example of the washing

machine. To many a washing machine is,

in fact, a sign of great privilege, one that

we don’t, but probably should, recognise

in our life. For many people, struggling

to get by on two dollars a day, who may

spend upwards of four hours a day clean-

ing their clothes, the washing machine is

not just something in which you put dirty

clothes in andmiraculously receive clean

clothes out of at the end of the spin cycle.

At the end of that cycle, you do not only

receive clean Lenor fresh clothes, but

also an education. As every hour that you

do not spend scrubbing clothes by hand,

fetching water, scrubbing pots and pans,

you gain an hour of education. This could

be an hour that you spend learning a lan-

guage, or an hour that is used to teach

children how to read and write. This

miracle of modern technology is made

entirely possible because of industriali-

sation. Industrialisation facilitates this

grand surplus of time that could be won-

derously filled with education, learning

and improvements, that would have such

a profound and beneficial aect on soci-

ety. Washing machines are only one ex-

ample that yields benefits to the quality

of peoples’ lives by giving them greater

freedom to act autonomously and live

their lives the way that they wish to as a

result of industrialisation.

BLOOD, BRICKS

AND

BAD ASSUMPTIONS

Break through the myths and dive into the hard reality of industrialisation.

“

It would be puerile of me not to

recognise that industrialisation is no

silver bullet for the world’s problems.

A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

Is industrialisation something the should be praised or criticized?

Photo courtesy of Google Images