Poverty In The Victorian Era
The Victorian Era was known as a long period of peace, national self-confidence, and prosperity in Great Britain. Conversely, some of the local citizens that lived during this era, faced intense poverty and did not embrace these jovial characteristics of the time period. The problems with poverty during the Victorian Era were caused mainly by a rapidly increasing population, employment problems, and overall ineffective sanitation of Great Britain. Population growth was a key ingredient to the rise of poverty in the Victorian Era. How the population actually grew is not necessarily clear, but some ideas have been introduced, such as “larger [family size]; more children surviving infancy; people living longer[, and] immigration,” (Daniels).
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"Large numbers of both skilled and unskilled people were looking for work, so wages were low, barely above subsistence level" (Daniels), low wage was easily implemented during the Victorian Era as the search for jobs was the interest of the whole nation. With not enough money to provide for their families, men and women also exposed children to labor as another way to increase income. Seasonal and Supply & Demand jobs terrorized the nation as skills needed to achieve permanent jobs were unreachable, and families had no savings to lean on. "If a man had enough initiative and energy after a long working day, he could attend evening courses on scientific subjects or Latin or shorthand at a Mechanics’ Institution, or at one of the Working Men’s Colleges founded in 1854" (Picard), after work, courses and classes were offered to those looking to improve their skills and experience, but still having duties at his or her home as a husband or wife and parent, it was almost impossible to find the time and energy to study. " If work dried up, or was seasonal, men were laid off, and because they had hardly enough to live on when they were in work, they had no savings to fall back on" (Daniels), barely making enough to feed themselves and children, being laid off brought families to starve to death unless they could quickly find another job. Employment brought poverty and death to the Victorian Era providing low wage and temporary jobs to both skilled and unskilled
"Large numbers of both skilled and unskilled people were looking for work, so wages were low, barely above subsistence level" (Daniels), low wage was easily implemented during the Victorian Era as the search for jobs was the interest of the whole nation. With not enough money to provide for their families, men and women also exposed children to labor as another way to increase income. Seasonal and Supply & Demand jobs terrorized the nation as skills needed to achieve permanent jobs were unreachable, and families had no savings to lean on. "If a man had enough initiative and energy after a long working day, he could attend evening courses on scientific subjects or Latin or shorthand at a Mechanics’ Institution, or at one of the Working Men’s Colleges founded in 1854" (Picard), after work, courses and classes were offered to those looking to improve their skills and experience, but still having duties at his or her home as a husband or wife and parent, it was almost impossible to find the time and energy to study. " If work dried up, or was seasonal, men were laid off, and because they had hardly enough to live on when they were in work, they had no savings to fall back on" (Daniels), barely making enough to feed themselves and children, being laid off brought families to starve to death unless they could quickly find another job. Employment brought poverty and death to the Victorian Era providing low wage and temporary jobs to both skilled and unskilled