The Causes Of Greed During The Gilded Age

There were many conflicting views during the Gilded Age. Some viewed those at the top of the socio-economic ladder as robber-barons due to the vast amount of wealth that never seemed to extend to the workers in terms of salary or safety. However, some called them captains of industries, those who bettered the economy and the lives of workers. These people had an enormous positive impact on the country’s businesses and philanthropy on American economy and society. They transformed America into the most powerful industrial nation, leading the country’s charge by building powerful industries.

In the 19th century, the Gilded age was this period of time when America looked like this massive productive country. What people do not know was that in the inside they were this suffering country that had massive poverty and thousands of people without jobs. America was filled with industrialists which are also called Robber Barons. Robber Barons were these people who basically stole fortunes by having their employees work 12 hour days, 7 days a week and getting paid about 15 cents an hour. Andrew Carnegie was a really wealthy businessman who made steel. Carnegie made millions of dollars but in the end he still paid his workers very little. His employees worked long hard days and at the end of the day they got paid hardly nothing. These workers also worked in bad conditions and some of the workers were kids and they were having them do some of the really hard dangerous work. According to a US history author “They received no health benefits, no vacation, and suffered from periodic layoffs because of downturns in the business cycle( The Gilded age pg. 1) The 19th century during the Gilded age most of the big business men where these guys who had massive amounts of money and yet they pay their workers really low wages with bad conditions.

In the Gilded Age, big business controlled most aspects of everyday life. As the United States was amid a time of economic growth, big business was growing as well-- contributing to that economic growth, all the while, gaining control and dominance across the nation. With such an influencing power, big business cared less to think about anyone else other than themselves. Due to this corrupt possession of power big business possessed, legislation was passed in their favor with the government wrapped around their fingers. The economy, politics and the lives of most Americans were affected negatively when big business reigned supreme.

While being a greedy person can be bad, it can be good as well. For instance, in the gilded age greed helped multiple things like the economic, political, and social issues going on from 1860-1890 mainly during the industrial revolution. During these 20 years, many industries took off like the iron horse railroad, patents were increased by 28x over, and multiple groundbreaking electronics that would soon help to better communication developed. The gilded age was an important time for america's development and helped it establish what it is today.

Greed can be a powerful motivating force, evident through the positive impact it had on Industrialization in America during the Gilded Age. During this time new inventions became plentiful, but where there were new inventions there also had to be new businesses to back these inventions up and allow them to be successful. Wealthy business owners were able to help in this regard. They already had the capacity to help facilitate the creation of these new inventions, but it did not stop there. This is where greed came in. Greed is the intense and selfish desire for wealth, and it was this that empowered the rich during this time to expand upon their already successful businesses to become even more rich and powerful than they were before. This led to a surge of businesses in the country, and it was all due to greed. It was this desire for more that led to an increase in productivity in the country that helped with the spread of technology throughout it which made it more enticing for immigrants coming to America.

During the nineteenth century, there was a time of critical social problems we now know

The Gilded Age was a time in American history when some of the most famous industrialists rose to power. These industrialists made good decisions and bad decisions which reflected them as Captains of Industry or Robber Barons. A Captain of Industry is used to describe someone who contributes positively to society. Robber Barons are businessmen who use unethical or questionable ways to gain power/wealth. Both terms were expressed during this time period by businessmen. The great industrialists of the Gilded Age show traits of being both Captains of Industry and Robber Barons.

During a time with corruption being at an all time high during the Gilded Age, with a mass influx of new immigrants from Eastern and southern Europe, such as Scandinavians or Italians. Corruption as seen through political machines as seen through Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed; along with mediocre presidents during the time period. Art being one of the many ways people could express their true feelings in a time where corruption was at a high point. George Bellows with paintings like, “Cliff Dwellers” depicting life in an urban city with an influx of new immigrants in urban areas like New York. Along with the harsh conditions in the dense urban areas such as

The market mechanism of the Gilded Age was laissez-faire capitalism, an economic system based solely on the law of supply and demand, driven single-handedly by the motivation of entrepreneurs to generate profit, regulated purely by the ruthless competition between companies and owners. Such an economic environment inevitably resulted in monopoly and encouraged illegal business practices to get ahead due to the lack of government intervention. In this free-market capitalism, large companies were able to lobby the government and hurt, or even prevent other businesses from kickstarting and competing, by controlling the nation’s political outcomes through financing its politicians. These robber barons running these billion-dollar companies extracted the maximum profits from labor by bitterly preventing their employees from organizing unions. Ultimately left with a monopoly, these companies were able to deceive their consumers about their products and were to set skyrocket prices without any competition for customers to turn to for cheaper alternatives.

The Gilded Age was a very special time for our nation that took place from the 1870s to around 1900. During this time, economic growth was at a rapid increase, politics were corrupted yet had high turnouts, and urbanization flourished. Every aspect of the life of an American changed drastically throughout this time of the Gilded Age. The entire era was focused on the enormous changes that each aspect of America was going through. As this is brought to attention, if we are to look into the way that America is in our time of today, we can find that there are many similarities to that of the original Gilded Age. The United States of America have currently found themselves to be experiencing the second era of the Gilded Age throughout the areas of economic, politic and social transformation.

The gilded ages were a time the small business started to grow and start to conquered other business. During these times, immigration became the mass problem because they were taking most of the jobs. Gilded Ages were the time of new technology was being created such as the telephone, camera, and many more. The Gilded ages made American modern. It also closed the Western Frontier.

Corruption spread like a plague through the city, state, and national governments. Greedy legislators and "forgettable" Presidents dominated the political scene. America was a prideful place, aware of its growing strength as a world power. The fair became an expression of that pride, and a vehicle for redressing the nation's earlier humiliation at the hands of the French, since at the time, the Eiffel Tower showed off France’s superiority. The rush of the competition in the book emerged complete focus from the audience and the thought of having to stop reading the book because it was late was undesired. Politics has always been corrupt and it continues to grow as the years pass by, causing conflicts. During the Gilded Age, 1876-1900, Congress was known for being rowdy and inefficient. It was not unusual to find that a quorum could not be achieved because too many members were drunk or otherwise preoccupied with extra-governmental affairs. The

The biggest benefactor was the American Dream, having the ability to climb social ranking and make something of yourself. One thing that no one thought about is that everything washes, for every rich man, there are a thousand poor ones who had the same exact dream. I believe that greed, overall, is bad because it causes a lack of humanity in the way people treat each other, removes and guilt in breaking the law, and furthers the rift between social classes.

The definition for greed is an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. Therefore, even though greed has a negative connotation, it is both good and bad because it can affect your actions in either a positive or negative way. Greed can be a good thing because it can make you want to work harder to achieve what you want. But, greed is mostly a negative concept because people can become so consumed with it, that they are not conscious about their actions. In The Pearl by John Steinbeck and Times Magazine “Science Proves It: Greed Is Good” by Jeff Kluger, both show how greed can be good and bad.

Discontent of the working class was a major issue during the “Gilded Age”. Following the failure of the Farmer’s Alliance came a new political party better known as the “People’s Party” or the Populists. Nationwide strikes in increased during the summer of 1892. One such strike left ten dead and involved the biggest steel tycoon of the time, Andrew Carnegie. A strike, better known as the Homestead Strike, occurred at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead steel plant near Pittsburgh. Steelworkers over constant pay cuts decided to retaliate, so they stocked up on weapons and began to strike. Three hundred armed Pinkerton Guards were floated on barges down a river, and many of them were assaulted by the assailants and ultimately forced to surrender following a battle between the two sides which left ten dead and some sixty wounded. Carnegie, who was out of state at the time, told his trusted friend, Henry Frick (who was left in charge of the plant), to end the rebellion, so Frick summoned a couple thousand federal troops who broke the strike and the union. Following this strike, questions were raised about how Carnegie ran his business. In this trial, Carnegie was charged with one count of Reckless Endangerment, one count of Hypocrisy and one count of Greed. Although Carnegie had frequently docked his workers pay and his factory was not up to par, to a very small extent, Carnegie was a robber baron, because he paid his working conditions were significantly better than those around him