Gilded Era Vs Progressive Era Essay

During the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, there has been various changes within our economy policy. The transition from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era has shown how much our government’s influence in economics has changed throughout those years. In the Gilded Age, there was a widespread belief in monopolies and taking companies out of business. Although, in the Progressive Era, the government believed in encouraging competition in businesses and attacking trusts in order to do so. On the contrary, these eras also have some of the same economic policies due to it not being changed drastically. In all, these changes have helped build our economic policy we use today.

As mentioned earlier, during the Gilded Age, there was a belief in monopolies by robber barons of society and taking out businesses. For example, a businessman named John D. Rockefeller known as a robber baron of society during this time period. This was because he ended up taking over the oil business by building trusts. These trusts then made him in control of the entire oil business and eventually eliminating all competing oil businesses. Although, these
These changes can be seen as problem and solution as the years go by. For example, in the Gilded Age there was a corrupt government that contained monopolies and trusts. This was seen as a problem by reformers in that era, therefore it was solved later on in the Progressive Era. A way this happened is by attacking trusts thus enabling competition in business as mentioned previously. Also, previously there has been an issue on the conditions of workers which have been solved in the modern economy. Now there is an extended federal authority which established standard wages and hours on the job. Cause and effect patterns like this have been seen throughout history and overall helped the U.S.