[00:02.54]Lesson 16
[00:04.69]The modern city
[00:13.74]What is the author's main argument about the modern city?
[00:20.37]In the organization of industrial life the influence of the factory upon the physiological and mental state of the workers has been completely neglected.
[00:31.06]Modern industry is based on the conception of the maximum production at lowest cost, in order that an individual or a group of individuals may earn as much money as possible.
[00:44.50]It has expanded without any idea of the true nature of the human beings who run the machines,
[00:50.72]and without giving any consideration to the effects produced on the individuals and on their descendants by the artificial mode of existence imposed by the factory.
[01:02.37]The great cities have been built with no regard for us.
[01:06.76]The shape and dimensions of the skyscrapers depend entirely on the necessity of obtaining the maximum income per square foot of ground,
[01:15.96]and of offering to the tenants offices and apartments that please them.
[01:21.90]This caused the construction of gigantic buildings where too large masses of human beings are crowded together.
[01:31.26]Civilized men like such a way of living.
[01:34.77]While they enjoy the comfort and banal luxury of their dwelling, they do not realize that they are deprived of the necessities of life.
[01:44.08]The modern city consists of monstrous edifices and of dark, narrow streets full of petrol fumes and toxic gases,
[01:52.50]torn by the noise of the taxicabs, lorries and buses, and thronged ceaselessly by great crowds.
[02:00.66]Obviously, it has not been planned for the good of its inhabitants.