Wage labor changes the American ideal of being individualistic and controlling your own life to be part of the system, otherwise you have no chance of earning money. 'money. Before the Industrial Revolution the ideal of owning your own business was the American dream. Taking a job with a given salary from an employer was completely optional (usually working another job when there isn't much to do in the farm business). The community was totally separated by region and the term ownership means to manage or own one's business whether it is successful or not, which is the main ideal of Americans. The artisan is a smaller group of people who possess a skill, tactile or specific knowledge. (Nebel) They are similar to the owner company, except they have a special connection to the product (because the product is usually made through their special skill and it is rare). Artisans usually have a special connection to the product they sell and their reputation is based on that product. There is also a group of people called agrarian populism (mainly farmers), who have remained stuck in the past and will not accept any progress, mainly because there is something in the past that they want to hold on to. Southerners could be part of any of these groups, as the South was dominated by agriculture and Southerners had more control and mastery over property and slavery. The North mainly depends on steel, trade and all kinds of ship-related activities. This was the time when owning property meant power and ideal, having control of one's own work, and that was the American. Industrialization and workers are the exact opposite of the old American dream. It's not about self-financing, but rather about sticking together. According to the table “Total I...... middle of paper ......uct. It doesn't have to be the lowest ranking job, it applies to everyone in the system. This brought us the age of advertising and lifestyle. The new materialist behavior was shaped by the success of the Great Machine. Consumerism reinforces the importance of wage labor, they can no longer be removed from the system. The American dream was shaped by the wage labor system through many struggles of the lower classes, the artisan lost his importance and the success of the big machine. We had lost most of our tradition, but we had something much greater through wage labor. Works Cited Quote Aeschliman, MD “The True and Only Paradise: Progress and Its Critics, by Christopher Lasch.” The Chesterton Review 19.1 (1993): 78-84. Print.Matewan. Real. John Sayles. Perf. Chris Cooper. Cinemacom Pictures, 1987. DVD. Nebel, Grant. Conference. Np: np, sd PDF.