Rich V. Poor

The Industrial Revolution began the modern era, which brought about a new capitalist system and a new world economy. New technology and scientific innovations sparked worldwide exchanges of national and cultural resources. Globalization provided nations and individuals the opportunity to grow rich creating monopolies and economic superpowers. Not everyone was able to capitalize at the start of this new era. Nations and individuals that did not have the resources or could not discover a method to get wealthy were stuck, not able to flourish. In these most recent economic times, it is easy to see that the gap between the extremely rich and the extremely poor is growing, with those in the middle being pushed to one extreme or the other. Economic superpowers, whether they are nations or corporations, have established themselves and dominate their respective industries. These economic superpowers have controlled the world because without them production, distribution, and the worlds globalized economy would grind to a stop. While these wealthy nations and wealthy individuals flourish, the poor nations and individuals suffer. Poor nations and individuals have no way of helping themselves and are thrown farther and farther into poverty each day. There are many factors that influenced this gap between the rich and poor, each reason having a different effect on the world economy. The increase in human population from roughly 375 million in 1400 to about 1 billion in the early nineteenth century created the need for more energy and resources (Strayer, 568). The Industrial Revolution was a response to the needs of humans. With the transition to new manufacturing methods humans were now able to produce products more efficiently and at a faster rate. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing, new iron production processes, improved efficiency of waterpower, the increasing use of steam power and development of machine

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