I have previously explained the upbringing conditions applying to many agrarian state societies.  One would think it got better when the Western world started to industrialize.  Certainly, the average started to rise.  But at first it seems to have mostly benefited those living on the countryside.  In the cities this only benefited those which already had some sort of education.  To members of the lower classes living in the fast-growing cities the situation got even worse.

To the growing working class, the situation often appeared hopeless.  In such situations people resort to alcohol and drugs.  Even among married men it was common to spend much of their wage on booze.  At the same time, it was not socially acceptable for men to do unpaid housework.  Same thing with taking care of babies.  Moreover, the fraction of mothers which did not have any husband increased.  Their employers did not spend a thought at their female employees having to take care of home and children.  The result was loads of mothers being forced to work themselves to a premature death.  Their babies were often drugged to keep calm meanwhile.  Alternatively, they were taken care of by individuals which could not give them sufficient nutrition.  Childhood mortality rose in the cities while it decreased in the countryside.

A great deal of members of the working class failed to sustain their children.  Then their children were themselves forced to work under forms which I call child slavery.  Those economically exploited them believed sleep to be a waste of time.  Moreover, they were probably not aware of children needing more sleep than adults.  (This varies by age.)  So children were forced to work so much they did not even have time left to sleep as much as they needed.  At the same time, they were forced to work with objects designed for adults.  Both conditions heavily increased the risk of workplace accidents.  To these came all the pollution which drastically increased during the period.

A non-negligible part of the working class soon become miserable people.  Not only had they been swaddled but also drugged as babies.  Then they had been left without supervision or instruction for up to several years.  The rest of their upbringing they had spent in one-sided manual labour and at the same time suffered chronic sleep deprivation.  Then add malnutrition and pollution of air and water.  Those which survived to adulthood become small, weak and sickly people.  Such individuals were also stupid and had self-destructive habits.  These had been doomed to repeat if not the standard of living had risen.

Early eugenists saw these miserable people among the lower classes of the cities.  However, they probably did not know the upbringing conditions of the miserable had be outright horrible.  Certainly, they did not know the difference between hereditary characters and external characteristics.  (One can have a hereditary character for something without having the characteristic.)  In contrast, they knew that geographical mobility had increased due to the development of society.  So they drew the wrong conclusion it was about outbreeding depression!  They seem to have presupposed everything to be biologically hereditary.

On the other hand, there were early socialists which knew about their living conditions.  But they don’t seem to have realised the extent of their upbringing conditions’ consequences.  Presumably due to defiance in knowledge on the limits of the humanly possible.  So they believed miserable people had been manipulated to act against their own good.  I think they never have had the chance to learn what was useful.  No-one had simply thought about this.

At the end it was the early socialists which got influence over the situation.  Employers read their writings and realised the living conditions was a problem.  Riots and strikes were not the result of some sort of organised ill will.  They existed for a reason!  Employers started to improve the conditions for their poor employees out of sheer self-preservation.  This prevented the additional worsening which some socialists had predicted.  Instead, the standard of living started to rise for the working class in the cities too.

Can this development be imitated in other parts of the world?  Then it is required that the individuals people work for are open to the possibility of other points of view.  Are they used to people working for them in practice being completely without legal rights the individuals rarely are that.  It is also required that the employer cares at all about his or her employees.  Something which unfortunately can’t be assured in other parts of the world.

Uploaded on the 7th of July 2023.