The Condition of the Working Class
On what evidence does Engels base his portrayal of the 19th-century "great towns," (and Manchester in particular) as a physical expression of a "social war, the war of each against all"?
On what evidence does Engels base his portrayal of the 19th-century "great towns," (and Manchester in particular) as a physical expression of a "social war, the war of each against all"?
I was horrified to read the terrible conditions going on in Manchester during the Industrial Revolution. When Engels addresses the living conditions on the lower banks of the Irk, it was almost too much to read. With no lavatory facilities, faulty homes that provided improper ventilation, people were forced to live in complete dispair. Unlike many American cities at this time, the poor lived in the center of the city, whereas in Manchester, the rich lived in the city center, and kept the poor out by means of locating jobs in the outskirts of the towns, and also by providing "financially friendly" shops to the poor. His address to the war on the poor needs to be taken into serious consideration.
(I deleted the post trying to make corrections/editions to the post, went to view the post and saw that it was still up but apparently it disappeared within a day or two, so I'm reposting this entry)
I really liked reading this particular piece because it definitely was an easier read and a lot of his reports of the poor housing conditions of the proletariat or the poor in Manchester in a sense are still quite present to this day with low-income families and individuals to this day, though I'm sure some of the conditions in poorer neighborhoods in present times in America aren't as awful as those in Manchester during Engels' time.
A good majority of lower income families and individuals nowadays end up in homes that are not well taken care of or are placed and/or live in slum apartment complexes [because cheaper housing=in bad condition (and that’s all they can afford)], similarly to those of the poorer in Manchester who ended up in ‘middle row’ homes or one room homes to families with no respect to privacy when sleeping arrangements are put together with the kitchen or the dining table. The basic idea in contrasting slums and poor housing conditions with that of the past and present emphasize the fact that lower income families and individuals end up in bad homes and bad parts of a neighborhood or city and thus the neighborhood is segregated between rich and poor.
I also thought Engel pointed out a very interesting aspect of housing that kept the poor poor.
"The couple of hundred houses, abandoned by their original inhabitants; the industrial epoch alone has crammed into them the swarms of workers whom they now shelter; the industrial epoch alone has built up every spot between these old houses to win a covering for the masses whom it has conjured hither from the agricultural districts and from Ireland; the industrial epoch alone enables the owners of these cattlesheds to rent them for high prices to human beings, to plunder the poverty of the workers, to undermine the health of thousands, in order that they alone, the owners, may grow rich. In the industrial epoch alone has it become possible that the worker scarcely freed from feudal servitude could be used as mere material, a mere chattel; that he must let himself be crowded into a dwelling too bad for every other, which he for his hard-earned wages buys the right to let go utterly to ruin.”
Essentially, the poor are crammed in homes and paying ridiculous prices for slums that eventually end up back into the pockets of the bourgeoisie who rent out spaces for families to live in which “his hard-earned wages buys the right to let go utterly to ruin.” If a great deal of his income is going towards rent, he never accumulates wealth and thus is kept in a system that keeps him poor.
Comments
I agree.
Posted by: Valerie | February 4, 2007 12:09 PM
I agree as well. The fact of the matter is, the "war against the poor" is so prominent today, especially in urban cities. As an interior design major, and someone who is more interested in the housing aspect of things the fact that new condos (i.e., unaffordable housing) are going up practically everyday, while we still have so many homeless people living in this city makes me pretty sick.
Posted by: Rachel Bickel | February 5, 2007 10:10 AM