The Inevitable Inequality: Navigating the Economic Disparities of Industrial Revolutions
Are We Ready for the Social Challenges of Industry 4.0?
In 1955, Simon Kuznets, who sixteen years later would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics by the Swedish Academy, suggested that the increase in economic inequality is an inevitable result of any industrial revolution. And history proves him right. The first industrial revolution radically transformed Europe, which was then based on an agricultural and rural economy, into an urban and industrialized society. The invention of the steam engine and the mechanical loom transformed British businesses and, to a greater or lesser extent, those of other European economies. However, this transformation was not without inequalities. The industrial revolution led to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of industry owners, while the proletariat remained poor and subjected to harsh working conditions. Approximately a century later, electricity, new forms of energy like gas and oil, and mass production would give rise to a new industrial revolution. The second industrial revolution led to the first globalization of the economy, causing industrialized countries to politically and militarily control nations producing raw materials to obtain production materials at the lowest possible cost (imperialist stage)…
