Poverty in Britain, 1890-1914 Main Essay

While urbanization is identified as the main cause of poverty in Britain during the Industrial Revolution period, social problems related to health, education, and employment led the nation to poverty. As a result of increasing growth of population in the cities, poor living conditions became rampant, resulting to illnesses in urban areas. As a result, the government needed not only to provide help for people whose health has suffered, but it also had to bear the economic downturn that resulted from lack of workers in its industries due to low number of workers working its industries and factories.

In addition to community health problems, Britain also faced the challenge of negotiating with workers' unions in order to keep the economy running. The government's failure to address this social problem efficiently led to a slowdown in its economic activities, hurting its growth in the long run.

Lastly, education as a 'sub-cause' that led to Britain's poverty can be traced to, again, the government's slow response to address the need of the new economy for more educated, and not only skilled, workers.Since the new industries and factories that brought economic growth in the country used new technology, it became necessary for workers to be qualified to undergo trainings, and this is where an individual's education would become invaluable. Lack of skilled and trainable workers meant another slowdown on the economic activities of major industries in the cities for the day. Although education became a social problem already at the time, the government sought to address this problem by implementing legislation on education that provided free basic education for….....