The Industrial Revolution

"The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, production, and transportation had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Britain. The changes subsequently spread throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world. The onset of the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in human society; almost every aspect of daily life was eventually influenced in some way."

It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries.
The introduction of steam power fuelled primarily by coal, wider utilization of water wheels and powered machinery (mainly in textile manufacturing) underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity.
Historians agree that the Industrial Revolution was one of the most important events in history.
Nevertheless the first consequences weren't what one could imagine.
Cheap production thanks to the use of machinery instead of human work produced less jobs and lowering of income for most of the population.
It was thanks to the spreading of the revenues that brought a higher living standards, the consequent consummation of the machine produced goods that produced a higher production and higher consuming.
The consumistic society lasted as long as the balance producing-consuming was pair.
With the globalisation a new Industrial revolution unbalanced the markets.
If we want to find the guilty we just look to the ones who produced that imbalance.
Producing in China and reselling in the West can last as long as in the West the richness is produced in some other way.
If not, the consumers are unable to consume.
In other words: if you do not have a job or an income you won't consume even the cheapest of product.
Globalisation will produce the right consequences the moment we will be able to find again the balance producing-consuming.