Final answer:
John Green argues that industrial capitalism limited the power and control of industrial workers over their working conditions, leading to low wages, long hours, and dangerous work environments.
Step-by-step explanation:
John Green contends that industrial capitalism limited the power and control workers had over their own working conditions. During the Industrial Revolution, wealth creation and productivity were significantly enhanced, but this often occurred at the expense of industrial workers. The introduction of new machines and the establishment of factories shifted production from skilled artisans to unskilled laborers who received low wages and worked in hazardous conditions. Capitalists and factory owners enjoyed considerable profits while many workers faced long hours, dangerous workplaces, and little say in their employment terms.
Rethinking society's structure, intellectuals like Karl Marx criticized how capitalism created both wealth and widespread poverty, inequality, and environmental damage. Marx presented the idea that the proletariat, the working class, would rise against the bourgeoisie, the capitalists, to create a more equitable socialist society. The limitations for rural and working-class urban Americans were thus both economic and social, with the new industrial order challenging traditional ways of life and calling into question the justice of the capitalist system.