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How did the progressive concern for efficiency impact social reform, public education, government administration, and rural life?

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The Progressive Era's focus on efficiency significantly influenced social reform, public education, government administration, and rural life. Social reformers sought Prohibition to create more efficient workers. In education, they advocated for training students based on social class to optimize workforce needs. Government administration was restructured to be run by experts, minimizing waste. In rural areas, efficiency led to mechanization, reducing labor demands and regulating big business practices to protect workers and the public.

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Although we don't usually think of social reform being concerned with efficiency, you can argue that it was during the Progressive Era.  For example, one reason they wanted Prohibition was that they thought that people who didn't drink would be better and more efficient workers than people who did drink.

In education, they wanted to train the upper level kids for thinking jobs and the lower class kids to be drones in factories.  That's more efficient than A) having all the lower class kids completely uneducated and/or B) wasting money teaching Shakespeare to someone who's going to be a factory worker -- their thinking, not necessarily mine.

In government, they wanted it to be run by experts.  This would be more efficient than having it run by politicians because experts would not waste money.  They would just do what was best rather than trying to spend money getting votes for...

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themselves.

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It is a little bit difficult to pin down what time period you are talking about, but if you are asking about the progressive era in the early 20th century, the progressive concerns brought about a series of regulations and reforms in the practices of big business and an increased implementation of things like compulsory education and the beginnings of a drive towards mechanization of the farm and a decrease in the eventual labor demands on those same pieces of land.

Prior to that time, big business had been allowed to run rough-shod over the working poor and most anybody else that got in their way but after things like Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" and other more publicized outcries over working conditions and monopolies grew in volume, the government was forced to crack down on those big businesses and place some limits on their powers.

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