Early Twentieth Century Workplace

The Twenty-First Century Work Place Life in the early twentieth century was provided by secure factory jobs. The United States was an industrial area filled with factories. People without much education could work in the factories and know their jobs were safe. There was no schooling or special skills required. People worked in the factories and made enough money to support themselves and their families. Today, factories full of human workers are a rare thing in America. Most people now go to college to further their education and get more specialized jobs. They believe in the luxuries their jobs can provide and not the value of their work. Twentieth century work and the values that came with it are rarely seen in America today. Factories now no longer need as many workers to run them. Many people’s jobs have been outsourced to machines and computers. Those factories and mills that stayed opened were able to spend their money on new technology. Mills that continued to operate were able to replace their workers with a new generation of nearly autonomous, computer- run machines (Davidson 320). Factory workers became obsolete to machines. One by one almost every worker was replaced by a fancy new computer system.
In the early twentieth century, factory jobs were most people’s sources of income.
The thought that these workers could ever be replaced by machines never entered people’s minds. They knew they had secure jobs at these factories. In an article written by Adam Davidson, a young girl is close to losing her job in a factory to a machine. Davidson points out, “if she had been born in upstate South Carolina earlier in the twentieth century, her work life would have been far more secure” (Davidson 320). People in the twenty-first century don’t work in factories, they have more specialized or more socialized jobs. Technology is eating jobs (Kessler
331).
Although outsourcing has almost rid factories of humans, offshoring has also had a hand in removing people from their jobs. Business owners want to pay their workers the least amount they can. If workers overseas are willing to work for cheaper wages, then American factory jobs are going to be sent overseas. Today, many manufacturing jobs were offshored to China and India (Binder 329). People in China are willing to work for wages lower than Americans will. People in America need more money just to survive.
Not only have the actual jobs changed, but the way people think of the work world. Most people today believe that in order to be successful you must have a well-paying job. It doesn’t matter how much you move, as long as you get a nice check every week. In an article written by Richard Sennett, two men, a father and son, were shown as perfect examples of how the ideals of work have changed. The father worked one steady job for over twenty years. His work had one single and durable purpose, the service of the family (Sennett 307). He wanted his family to live a nice life and his son to go to college and move up the ladder in life. The son, however, did not agree with his father. He went to college and had a well-paying job. His job required him to move around a lot and make new friends every couple of years. He had indeed rejected the way of his father (Sennett 309). Family didn’t matter as much to him. He worked to live a life of luxury, not keep his family happy and healthy.
People today do not have the same beliefs about work as they used to. They only care that they have enough money to live luxuriously. People who don’t live luxurious lives and work in factories are just waiting to see if they will keep their jobs. Many jobs have been replaced by machines and others have been sent overseas to cheaper labor. The world of work has changed dramatically.