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.
CHIP was introduced in 1997 to provide insurance for low-income children whose families earned too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to afford private health insurance. It has since grown to cover some eight million children at an annual cost of $13 billion, with the federal government paying most of the bill.