Where are the Cadburys, Levers, Salts and Akroyds of today?

The Merchant princes and manufacturers of this and other countries, should not look upon artizans, by whose hands those vast treasures of science and art had been wrought, as mere machines, but as fellow creatures whose welfare it is their duty to promote more especially by means of improved dwellings, and the increase of home comforts.

wrote Edward Akroyd - mill owner and social reformer in 1862.

So where are the Cadburys, Levers, Salts and Akroyds of today? asks Richard Tomkins

On the outskirts of Halifax, on what was then virgin land, the mill owner Edward Akroyd built two model villages to improve the lot of his workers: the first at Copley and the second, designed in the Gothic style by no less an architect than George Gilbert Scott, at Akroydon.

A common thread running through all these schemes was the desire by businessmen to help solve the social problems that industrialisation had created. Certainly, industrialisation raised living standards in the long term, but for much of the 19th century, while businesses prospered, their workers lived in Dickensian squalor. Rural communities were broken up and families were herded into the towns and cities where people lived several to a room in filthy, overcrowded slums. Open sewers ran through the streets, the air was thick with pollution, and working conditions - for children and adults - were brutal. If children survived into adulthood, and many did not, their lives were often cut short by poor health or diseases such as cholera and typhoid that spread rapidly in the insanitary conditions.

Although that squalor has now gone, few would argue that society's problems are over. In the past 20 or 30 years, western companies have benefited from two big labour market trends: globalisation, which has allowed them to take advantage of cheaper labour costs in other countries, and rapid technological progress, which has allowed them to replace humans with machines. As in the Victorian era, corporate profits have soared, but the human casualties have been heavy: millions of people have lost their jobs and, lacking the skills that employers are ready to pay for, have joined the hidden army of unemployed living more or less permanently on benefits. Government figures show that, excluding pensioners, more than six million Britons - 4.3 million adults and 1.8 million children - live in households where nobody has a job, giving rise to the ugly new term "the underclass" to describe those for whom society no longer has an obvious role.

So where are the Cadburys, Levers, Salts and Akroyds of today?

This got me thinking to write a post - The shopping mall that is Van Diemens land

One of the themes of my current thinking is that one of the reasons we are driving technology hard towards products and tools that amplify human talents for cooperation is because we desperately seek meaning and identity in a world that forces us to quest for identity and meaning. Social isolation can be as harmful to your health as smoking or a sedentary lifestyle. A large part of this effect is driven by the subjective sense of social isolation called loneliness. New research shows that human beings are simply far more intertwined and interdependent—physiologically as well as psychologically—than our cultural prejudices have allowed us to acknowledge. And I wonder, as a consequence we begin to be slowly but reluctantly radicalised.

This could be a real problem for companies ad organisations in the present and near future. We have a duty to give people reasons to go to work other than to earn a living - or even a subsistence wage.

In Consilience. The unity of knowledge by E.O. Wilson, he refers to Michel Foucault, who he describes as the great interpreter of political power in the history of ideas. Wilson quotes George Scialabba’s interpretation of Foucault, “Foucault was grappling with the deepest, most intractable dilemma of modern identity… For those who believe that neither God nor natural law nor transcendent reason exists, and who recognise the varied and subtle ways in which material interest – power – has corrupted, even constituted, every previous morality, how is one to live, to what values can one hold fast?” This particular conversation, it seems to me, now holds centre stage… In the Reluctant Fundamentalist, it is revealed that the real fundamentalism at issue is that of US capitalism, specifically that practised by (the central character) Changez’s former employer, Underwood Samson, whose motto, as they do their pitiless bit for globalisation, is “Focus on the fundamentals”. The subverted expectation very efficiently forces one to reconsider one’s preconceptions about such words and their meanings, argues James Lasdun

Comments

[توبيكات]

This article is very cool and contains many useful information and valuable

[lipoescultura]

this is one of the best interpretations "Foucault was grappling with the deepest, most intractable dilemma of modern identity… For those who believe that neither God nor natural law nor transcendent reason exists, and who recognise the varied and subtle ways in which material interest – power – has corrupted, even constituted, every previous morality, how is one to live"

[Monclervest]

thanks very much for sharing! it make us in deep thinking! The way you have “blended” (hehe) it all together makes this look like a solid, whole product, as good as any Pixar short. Probably better. But then again: That’s my opinion. we offer large collection of various styles moncler jackets for your selection! welecome to have a review and choose your favorite one!

[Beats by dre shop]

Superior quality with low price! Free shipping with fast delivery.Cheapest beats by dre headphones sale With FREE SHIPPING,sound wonderful high performance headphones,buy now!
http://www.beatsbydreshop-canada.ca/

[mulberry handbags]

Don't know what is wrong what is rite but i know that every one has there own point of view and same goes to this one

[Abercrombie]

L . a . Banca centrale europea haya ridotto il tasso principale di interesse di twenty-five punti foundation any 1, twenty-five every cento, appear crisi del debito peggioramento della zona pound haya superato l . a . preoccupazione every l'inflazione persistentemente elevata, aumentando l . a . propensione 's rischio. MY PARTNER AND I mercati sono molto sensibili alle oscillazioni grandi sviluppi nel Abercrombie elizabeth Fitch zona pound spostare rapidamente 's bruciatore anteriore elizabeth gli utili aziendali elizabeth oscurare my partner and i dati economici degli Stati Uniti.

[hogan]

Expo di Shanghai Madeira each indicare wagering institution HOGAN frequent 'Utes scarpa generare approach. Semplicemente, dopo che my wife and i visitatori del sito possono guardare gli artigiani constructions alta italiana dà questa chrome d'arte italiana di sviluppo.