18th-century Industrialization

Within most developed countries, we have notions of pragmatism, notions of the fact that we have democracies that have succeeded in tempering the market economy. In the 19th century, 18th-century industrial revolution had some very negative effects on people, particularly working classes all over the world. We see data where life expectancy was reduced, hikes were reduced. We can look at medical records and see that actually living standards in much of the large fractions of the population actually went down. But eventually, we passed legislation about working conditions and eventually we circumscribed some of the worst kinds of behavior. We eventually in the 20th century, we put in regulations that impose better environmental conditions. And so some of the damage was reversed. And we have made the market economy work in ways that the benefits of it are at least far more widely shared than they were 100 years ago.