I'd like to add one more issue to the discussion. The Industrial Revolution changed the concept of work in America on several levels. First, as productivity advanced, so did the need for more workers and more work hours. More people entered the workforce than ever before, actually causing a nationwide shift in polulation from the rural to the more urban areas, where the jobs were.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, was established by the federal government ten years ago to provide health insurance to children in families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.
1975: Ed Roberts, the father of the microcomputer designed the first microcomputer, the Altair 8800, which was produced by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). The same year, two young hackers, William Gates and Paul Allen approached MITS and promised to deliver a BASIC compiler. So they did and from the sale, Microsoft was born.