Final answer:
Industrialization led to increased profits for business owners and the emerging middle class, while working-class laborers faced exploitative conditions with long hours, low wages, and unsafe work environments. Laborers lost autonomy over their work, and despite cheaper consumer goods, they struggled to afford them due to the disparities in wealth distribution.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question 'How did industrialization affect business owners differently than it affected working-class laborers?' examines the varied implications of the Industrial Revolution for different social classes. Option A) Business owners benefited from increased profits, while laborers faced poor working conditions, captures the essence of this dichotomy. During the period of industrialization, business owners and entrepreneurs, including members of the emerging middle class, amassed significant wealth. They gained from the efficiency and scalability that industrial production provided, often at the expense of working-class laborers. Unskilled laborers flocked to factory jobs, facing long hours, low wages, and unsafe working conditions. In contrast to the craft production of earlier times, where artisans could influence their work, industrial laborers lost autonomy over their labor and its conditions. Furthermore, even as factory work enabled access to new consumer goods made affordable by mass production, workers found themselves toiling extensively to purchase these items. Through the lens of the labor theory of value, critics argued that the profits made by these business owners were disproportionate, given that it was the laborers' efforts that substantially added value to the products, and hence, their compensation should be larger.