Why The Gilded Age?

The gilded age refers to the expanding markets, swift urban growth, and the economic revolution. The worded gilded means something covered in gold. I feel that this word demonstrates the poverty and misfortune present in this era but is somewhat varnished with an enchanting glow of wealth and technologies that helped bring this industrial era to life. In this economic phase, among all the wealth was pure corruption.
Although the lower class took a devastating hit, the wealthy one percent is what pulled through and created job opportunities among their industries. Businesses were immersed in cutthroat industries and seeking to be apart of that top one-percent of America. “The process of economic concentration culminated between 1897 and 1904,
when some 4,000 firms vanished into larger corporations that served national markets and exercised an unprecedented degree of control over the marketplace” (8 gml). Along with the increasing poverty, came increasing wealth. The growing numbers of people called for increase of technologies which then resulted in the demand for substances like oil and steel. These large corporations were being run by people like J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Carnegie. These men were economic figures of the upper class and lived the illustrious lifestyle that was dreamed of. The aristocratic lifestyle that came with this wealth was social clubs, plantation homes, prestigious schools and marriage into other eco-status families. (gml 12)The wealthy of this time were not so much worried about social issues but focused more on the competitive dog-eat-dog industries they were immersed in.
People were scared of the growing power of the wealth and how it affected the power of the government.
Amongst the many social issues between the upper and lower classes, politics was corrupted by wealth and bribery. “In the west, many lawmakers held stock or directorships in lumber companies and railroads that received public aid”(give me liberty 27). Law makers were in favor of bills supporting companies in which they had stock or invested money into that was part of their salaries (27 gml). The wealthy would often use bribery or friendships with political leaders to receive bills or laws in their favor and even getting a spot in politics with no political background. Surrounded by these acts of extortion, there was no doubt that the lesser class detested the rich at the
time.
With such incredible financial differences between societies, the lower class believed that wealth should be divided up equally between classes. A man named Henry George produced a book titled “Progress and Poverty” pitching an idea to put an end to the growing wealth by creating a “single tax”. As Henry George states “In permitting the monopolization of the natural opportunities which nature freely offers to all, we have been ignored the fundamental law of justice.” (38 voices of freedom)This “single tax” would replace other taxes with just a large one to promote factory working men and unsuccessful business men to become farmers. With no doubt, the upper class was opposed to this tax, worried it would influence the working class to flea from their factory jobs.
Men who came from poor immigrant families, climbed the ladder of success by investing into small businesses that soon grew extremely large to support the growing economy of the country.
An example of this rags to riches was Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was the leader of the steel industry in the midst of the gilded age. Carnegie was opposed to the belief of division of wealth and labor unions. Although he was against these, he donated large amounts of money to charities by building libraries, museums, schools, etc. Building his empire from the ground up, Carnegie was a strong believer that this would benefit communities and would give individuals inspiration to go out and make something of themselves like Carnegie pursued. As Carnegie has stated “The best means of benefitting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise”(voices of freedom
30).
Social Darwinism was a strong concept that explained the success and failure of human beings and social classes using the theory of evolution of plants and animal species. It was believed that the government should not interfere but to let this natural process happen on its own. The less fortunate of this time strongly disagreed with these ways of coping with wealth distribution among classes.
“By 1890, the richest one percent of Americans received the same total income as the bottom half of the population and owned more property than the remaining ninety-nine percent. (give me liberty page 13)
The wealthy caused much resentment from the lower classes. Being apart of this class came with a mendacious social and political lifestyle. Inherited wealth and individually owned monopolies is where the money laid. People dreamed of this economic status but rarely got to live it. With all the turmoil and negativity that was talked of this class, these people were responsible for the millions of jobs that were employed under their exclusive company’s control.