Gilded Age Social Darwinism
Heaven and Hell: Gilding by Gold Cracks
Ninety nine percent of Americans lived and worked in hell, while the elite one percent lived in heaven as money became a god to society! Something had to change! The Gilded Age is a term coined by writer Mark Twain in The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873), which satirized an era of serious social problems (Doc 2). The Gilded Age was an era of rapid economic growth. Cities grew as people moved from rural areas and immigrants arrived from other countries in search of a better life. Instead they found a hard life in the urban hells called cities. Life in the cities was full of troubles from overcrowding in tenement houses, to high crime, outbreaks of disease, and low wages. On the other hand, industrial …show more content…
Herbert Spencer said that only the strongest and the fittest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit should be allowed to die (DOC 1). William Graham Sumner opposed government intervention to cure social problems of the age; he was very clear about his position saying “society, therefore, does not need any care or supervision” (DOC 8). Social Darwinists believed that the government should not interfere with social ills such as poverty. The Social Darwinism philosophy gave wealthier Americans a justification to ignore the poor, helping them believe that lower class people were inferior and brought on their own problems. Industrialism and laissez-faire policies were working for the very wealthy; this group was very resistant to any reforms.
When the government did begin to pass policies to intervene, the wealthy found ways to get around them or use them to their own advantage. The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed in 1890 to prevent illegal trusts from being developed to “eliminate competition or restrain free trade” was largely ignored by the federal government who ignored most trusts (Keene p …show more content…
Cities blossomed and then flooded with problems. Laissez faire government had enabled the inventions and technological growth that spurred growth in this time but now came under question. The rich argued that it should continue as they had earned their position while the poor had not. Socialism and anarchism became popular reform topics. Unions developed and the working poor fought for their rights with minimal success. While the Gilded Age would not see answers to the problems of its day, the foundation was laid for future ages to reform government and build a better society. The “gilding” was cracked and problems were brought out into the open. Reforms were explored and the government began to become involved in regulating business at least minimally. Most people knew change had to come; they just couldn’t agree on
Ninety nine percent of Americans lived and worked in hell, while the elite one percent lived in heaven as money became a god to society! Something had to change! The Gilded Age is a term coined by writer Mark Twain in The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873), which satirized an era of serious social problems (Doc 2). The Gilded Age was an era of rapid economic growth. Cities grew as people moved from rural areas and immigrants arrived from other countries in search of a better life. Instead they found a hard life in the urban hells called cities. Life in the cities was full of troubles from overcrowding in tenement houses, to high crime, outbreaks of disease, and low wages. On the other hand, industrial …show more content…
Herbert Spencer said that only the strongest and the fittest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit should be allowed to die (DOC 1). William Graham Sumner opposed government intervention to cure social problems of the age; he was very clear about his position saying “society, therefore, does not need any care or supervision” (DOC 8). Social Darwinists believed that the government should not interfere with social ills such as poverty. The Social Darwinism philosophy gave wealthier Americans a justification to ignore the poor, helping them believe that lower class people were inferior and brought on their own problems. Industrialism and laissez-faire policies were working for the very wealthy; this group was very resistant to any reforms.
When the government did begin to pass policies to intervene, the wealthy found ways to get around them or use them to their own advantage. The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed in 1890 to prevent illegal trusts from being developed to “eliminate competition or restrain free trade” was largely ignored by the federal government who ignored most trusts (Keene p …show more content…
Cities blossomed and then flooded with problems. Laissez faire government had enabled the inventions and technological growth that spurred growth in this time but now came under question. The rich argued that it should continue as they had earned their position while the poor had not. Socialism and anarchism became popular reform topics. Unions developed and the working poor fought for their rights with minimal success. While the Gilded Age would not see answers to the problems of its day, the foundation was laid for future ages to reform government and build a better society. The “gilding” was cracked and problems were brought out into the open. Reforms were explored and the government began to become involved in regulating business at least minimally. Most people knew change had to come; they just couldn’t agree on