Category: Economic Growth

How Gender Equality Would Improve Economic Growth

Equality is the state of every individual being equal, especially in status, rights or opportunities. However, up till the 21st century, gender equality is still a prevalent issue. Men and women across the globe do not enjoy equal privileges. Gender equality is the equal right of both men and women to have access to opportunities and resources, including the right to participate in the economic sphere and have a say in making important decision. If achieving gender equality can return the $12 trillion in GDP that was forgone due to gender disparity, allowing equal roles in households, encourage individual expression, who is to disagree to the bountiful benefits gender equality could bring to the society, communities and individuals?

Desirability is one thing, but to follow through and execute such a plan to achieve gender parity is another. With this said, it is evident that there have been an increasing presence of women rights movements and organisations that champion the rights of women, to ensure that equal opportunities are given to them. These feminist movements have made headways especially in the developed nations such as Singapore with AWARE. For instance, AWARE advocates for equal opportunities at work and promotion. Employers could be taken to task if they are found to have dismissed a female staff inappropriately due to her being pregnant and needing to pay maternity leave. Feminist organisations as such have been on the rise to outlaw discrimination against women and promote for equal opportunities in terms of schooling for them as a first step towards empowerment especially in the developing world. Coupled together with the fact that there are much more educated people in the world, many do not believe that solely men are able to lead due to their “manly traits”. Influential men such as former US president Barack Obama promotes for equality of opportunity, and with such a large amount of supporter count, the goal is gender equality is becoming increasingly realistic in time to come.

However, detractors may argue that feminist groups have not made that much significance of headway in the fight for women’s fights and equal opportunities in terms of treatment for them. An article by BBC news reported that fewer than one in five young women would call themselves a feminist, polling in the UK and US suggests. Feminism is the doctrine advocating social, politics, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. However, in recent years, effects of movements started by feminist groups have in fact seen criticism and backlash instead of supporters. This is due to the fact that feminism has been tied to different stereotypes of women such as being man-hating, lesbianism or lack of femininity. As a result, many women refuse to be associated to such terms. This has instead proven the ideal of gender inequality to be unrealistic as it is not something that can be easily attained.

Newton’s third law of physics states: for ever action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And in this paragraph, we will be exploring the opposite reaction. There have been many unintended consequences rooted off from movements such as the #MeToo movement. In an article titled “Wall Street Rule for the #MeToo Era: Avoid Women at All Costs.”recently published by Bloomberg, many men have simply avoided women in fear of being entangled in accusations of sexual misconduct. As a result, many men have refused to coach, mentor or hire women, depriving women of the equal opportunity they deserve be it jobs or picking up a new skill and in turn ironically widening the gender gap, proving an opposite effect of such empowering movements which led to a two step forward, three step backward reaction.

Inarguably, biological differences in men and women may be a factor as to why equal opportunities are not given to both sexes. It is impossible to accord everyone equal opportunities in this world especially since inequality is something that is inherent. Every individual possesses different conditions, skill sets and abilities and thereby making it impossible to cast everyone the same opportunity. Science has proven that men are physically stronger than women, with 12 kilograms more skeletal muscle mass. This may explain why some industries which require heavy physical work are much more suited for men. Many also claim that women have a more “maternal bone” in their body which explains why the female workforce takes up 97.6 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers. This may lead critics to believe that gender equality is undesirable and unrealistic, mainly because they believe in the notion of how females and males have certain skill sets and fixed type of jobs they should be taking up.

Attaining gender equality would greatly improve economic growth. According to McKinsey & Co., the world is leaving around $12 trillion in GDP on the table because of the gender gap. Women’s representation in leadership roles have proven to obtain positive outcomes in organisations. Companies like Catalyst and Credit Suisse have reported that companies with more women in leadership and on boards have a higher correlation of profitability and financial performance. Should industries proactively hardwire gender parity in the future of work through effective training, narrowing the emerging gender gaps and reversing trends that we see today, can definitely help boost economic growth. Boosting economic growth is a win-win situation for everyone so if it is attainable via gender equality, why not?

In conclusion, to say that gender equality is undesirable is an extremely reductive view of the issue. Granted, some may stick to the traditionalist thinking of how women should stay at home to take care of the kids and men being the sole breadwinner of the family. However, when it comes to the big picture of thinking about the good of society, gender equality is always desirable due to the multitude of benefits it brings about to not only society, but communities and individuals. In an ideal world, gender equality would be both desirable and realistic, but that is not the world we live in today. The fight for gender equality is a marathon not a sprint, and it is at least 200 years away from us. We can keep on fighting and striving for gender equality rights, but by the time things may finally take a better turn, we may not even be there to witness it. And thus, I wholeheartedly agree with the statement of how gender equality is a desirable but unrealistic goal.

Globalization: Financial Development And Economic Growth

Globalization, a significant trademark inside the contemporary financial condition, has brought about critical changes to singular countries regarding monetary improvement procedures embraced by national governments. The term globalization alludes to the joining of nearby and worldwide economies into a comprehensively brought together political, monetary, and social request, and is anything but a particular wonder, notwithstanding, however, a term to depict the powers that change an economy into one described by the embracement of the more liberated development of exchange, speculation, work, and capital. The drive for globalization has brought about more noteworthy monetary development all-inclusive, through the opening of obstructions to universal exchange, yet this expansion in world yield is frequently connected with unfavorable impacts in connection to the solidness of a national economy, being powerless to the high points and low points of the worldwide business cycle, and furthermore both positive and negative consequences for the ways of life, or personal satisfaction inside a country.

It is frequently hard to arrange an economy that has been globalized, yet there are a few key pointers that recommend financial administration choices attempted by governments have, because of globalization. The primary proof to propose the globalization of countries has been the development in worldwide markets, changes in worldwide utilization and asset use designs, and the foundation of universal understandings just as the ascent of transnational companies. Globalization has been basically determined by the separating of financial hindrances between countries over ongoing decades that have brought about more noteworthy overall monetary development. This financial advancement has been prodded on by the pattern towards the deregulation of national economies, just as changes to empower more prominent aggressiveness inside the worldwide markets. Because of these microeconomic changes, all-inclusive, there has been a general decrease of confinements on an exchange, capital streams, and outside ventures. Likewise, mechanical headways of the last 50 years have added to this ‘financial progression’, where because of this innovation development, transport costs have additionally decreased drastically, making the exchange more cost-effective. Interchanges costs have likewise decreased through headways in media communications and web-based business, coming about in heightened development in the global funds. Through these increments in exchange and monetary streams, nations have encountered expanded degrees of financial development of the time that has added to the world’s ways of life. The worldwide populace presently has more noteworthy access to a more extensive assortment of buyer merchandise and enterprises, helped by the improvement of universal markets and the simplicity of exchanges allowed by mechanical headways.

It is evaluated that the worldwide economy developed, by and large, by 2.5% per anum during the late 1990s. This was fuelled by development in exchange of over 7% per annum, and development in outside speculation levels of over 23%. Obviously, globalization has realized more prominent paces of monetary development in many countries, as demonstrated by the profoundly fruitful NIC’s in Asia, known as the ‘Asian Tigers’ economies, notwithstanding, while the worldwide economy has developed altogether, the advantages have shifted fundamentally between economies. Where high pay and recently industrialized nations have accomplished development paces of around 3% and 7% individually, low salary nations accomplished development of just 2%. Monetary movement on the move economies fell during the 1990s by a normal of 2 to 7% per annum, indicating that globalization has brought about progressively equivalent ways of life. Be that as it may, the way of life, or personal satisfaction isn’t just a proportion of the degree of monetary development or change in genuine GDP, yet is a measure that considers the proficiency levels, training, medicinal services, and innovative change and death rates. A case of the personal satisfaction pointer is the human improvement file (HDI) which estimates changes in these components because of globalization. In the course of the most recent couple of decades, the HDI’s of the world’s most extravagant nations have expanded, because of globalization, where development and advancement have been ascribed to these economies through the ability to grasp advertise progression. In any case, the HDI’s of the more unfortunate countries have developed at more slow rates to the rich countries which, as certain financial specialists put it, shows that globalization is another word for the consistent ravaging of the more unfortunate and more fragile countries by the rich and amazing economies. It has been firmly contended that the advantages of rivalry go just to the individuals who can contend, and poor nations need to consult on inconsistent terms. What’s more, the powers of globalization fail to check for social treacheries, with Asian sweatshops being a prime model.

Exchange development has contributed altogether to changes in expectations for everyday comforts and monetary development of worldwide economies, yet its effects have contrasted between various economies. While the increments in worldwide imports and fares have come because of falling protectionist approaches, it has advantaged predominantly makers of fabricated merchandise, while makers of essential products still face global boundaries to exchange. The outcome of this is the expanding exchange between countries that produce various sorts of fabricates, and subsequently, a significant part of the advantages of this expanded exchange goes toward high salary and NIC countries. Creating countries, while encountering development, the poor arrived at indistinguishable levels from high pay economies, subsequently augmenting the salary isolate universally. So also, 70% of the monetary stream increments are because of industrialized countries, expanding their entrance to capital and expectations for everyday comforts, leaving lower salary countries on lower development proportions.

The journey for financial development and improved personal satisfaction, because of globalization, has brought about extraordinary to concentrate on countries’ outside soundness. E capacity of the nation to deal with its trade rates, parity of installments, and outside liabilities impact the view of brokers on world markets. The unpredictability of remote trade markets can add to outside insecurity, and globalization has brought about expanded exchange, requiring expanded money developments, the full markets monetary forms are increasingly inclined to unexpected thanks and deteriorations, modifying a country’s aggressiveness, and obligation levels. The improved access to universal accounts inconveniently influenced the outer parity of numerous countries, specifically creating countries rising enthusiasm on huge credits that can intensely exceed the income earned, bringing about obligation trap situations.

Moreover, the worldwide development towards more liberated exchange has brought about numerous high salary producing countries expanding their terms of exchange through near favorable circumstances, and expanding their paces of financial development. Be that as it may, creating countries’ terms of exchange will in general loaded with time as costs for essential fares fall. This outcome in long haul exchange deficiencies and a compounding CAD that outcomes in a crumbling outer equalization, which by and large keeps up the salary separate between the rich and poor countries inside the worldwide economy.

While globalization has brought about total increments in exchange, yield, and venture development in the recent decades, plainly the advantages from this development have been dispersed inconsistently between various economies. While creating nations declare focusing on assembling generation, high-pay economies are building up new creative designs and numerous poor countries are not embracing fundamentally. Thus, this has brought about lacking financial development rates inside less created countries, while countries, for example, the quickly developing ‘Asian Tiger’ economies have encountered extraordinary development paces of near 9%. The pay partition all-around therefore would, in general, extend, as rich and countries become rich and quicker rates than poor countries. In any case, restricting variables towards proceeding with quickened development inside high-pay countries keeps on being the keeping up of an economy’s outside solidness, specifically avoiding the victories of net remote obligation and value of the course of the business cycle, which may influence the universal trust in the administration of the specific economy. In this way, Globalization, in general, has, as advantages all through the world, yet these advantages of still intensely weighted towards the effectively rich countries, where the creating economies battle to keep up development comparable to the high-salary countries, bringing about the proof difference in the personal satisfaction between these ‘classes’ of countries in the worldwide economy.

Role of the Gilded Age in United States History: Argumentative Essay

Throughout history there have been many different eras that had affected Americans and the world in many different ways. These eras had affected us in either a good way or a bad way. One era that had affected us tremendously was the Gilded age. The Gilded Age in United States history is an era that occurred during the late 19th century, from the 1870s to the 1900s. This time period was where gender roles were infamously strict. This era had affected both roles in different ways. Depending on your economic status, depended on what lifestyle you lived.

The Gilded Age was the start of the industrial revolution when America shifted from an agricultural society to an industrial one. “Farmers and workers formed the bulwark of anti monopolism and, although brave in their opposition, they were out matched by industries” (challenging the systems). This created massive population growth and urbanization. The rich and the poor had very different lifestyles. The poor men, children, women, and immigrants started working in these dangerous factories for long hours making barley anything, this making the rich even wealthier. During the Gilded age there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor. The wealthy lived in fancy homes, dined and ate expensive food. They showered their children and family with gifts or whatever they wanted. The poor were crammed into filthy tenement apartments. These homes were very tight and unsanitary. “Tenements lacked toilets, showers, baths, and even flowing water” (History of Gilded..). This was before the Tenement house act came out in 1867, stating that “Its required that tenement buildings have one outhouse for every 20 residents” (Life inside Ny). This act was an attempt to improve the living environments, However not many followed this act. The poor really had an awful lifestyle, while the rich were living their best life. “It was a world where those who controlled corporations could perpetuate gigantic fraud.”(major problems in). People who owned these factories profited an insane amount off of these cruel, dangerous, and unfair working laws. This all changed after “Muckrakers” started exposing this corruption. “Muckrakers is a term used to describe reporters who exposed corruption among politicians and the elite” (Gilded age Tale). These were journalists who got their name from digging through the horrors and “muck” of the Gilded age.

Women and men roles were affected differently during this time period for many reasons. Wealthy white men were superior to everyone one in this era. They owned factories and controlled everything. Wealthy women were “eye candy” to the men, basically property. Men, If they wanted and education, they could get one, if they wanted to vote they could, unlike most women. The early 1800s and prior, women’s roles were to cook, clean, take care of the children, and obey the men in their life. In the mid 1800s specifically 1848, the women’s suffrage began. This is when women finally fought their rights for equality. The Gilded age for women was a new beginning. Women finally started to put themselves out there, experiencing greater opportunities for education and public involvement, either through work or through campaigns for social change and equality.

After around 35 years, this era soon came to an end. The working class would have to organize to improve their working and living conditions and make a change. This change consisted of lots of violence especially with each other. The violence was between the workers themselves as they struggled to agree on what they were fighting for. Some wanted increased wages and a better working environment, while others wanted to keep women, immigrants and blacks out of the workforce. There were also a large amount of strikes, like the railroad strikes. There was a pay cut and workers were furitated. The workers announced they’d prevent all trains from leaving until their pay was restored. The mayor at the time, the police and even the National Guard couldn’t stop the strikes that were going on. In 1893, both the overextended Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the National Cordage Company failed, which set off an economic depression in America. Banks and other businesses went bankrupt, and the stock market plunged, leaving many millions unemployed, more people were homeless and hungry. In some states, unemployment rose to almost 50 percent and ultimate high in America. The Panic of 1893 lasted four years and left lower and even middle class Americans fed up with political corruption and social inequality. Everything changed after this and Their frustration gave rise to another movement called the Progressive Movement which took hold when President Roosevelt took office in 1901.

Throughout history there have been many eras this one being a major downfall in America. All types of people were affected during this time period. Women were fighting for equal rights, the poor and immigrants were suffering in a poverty cycle, and the rich were taking advantage of the poor. This era shaped and molded us to who we are today with the urbanizations that occured, fighting for the rights of women, and the laws that were made because of this era.

Citations

1. History.com Editors. “Gilded Age.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Feb. 2018, www.history.com/topics/19th-century/gilded-age.
2. Sherman, Elisabeth. “New York City Housing Was Absolutely Awful In The Early 20th Century [25 PHOTOS].” All That’s Interesting, All That’s Interesting, 29 Mar. 2019, allthatsinteresting.com/tenement-new-york-photos-facts.

Changes in Cultural Life of the Gilded Age: Analytical Essay

Late 19th century is known as the Gilded Age, started from 1965 to 1900. It was marked by the greed and vulgarity, as well as the enormous consumption of the newly rich who flaunted their personal wealth. Meanwhile, the average Americans and recent immigrants still lived a frugal life. This was the time when the urban life first soared when the urban population increased from 8 million to 30 million. Its rapid growth without proper administration caused many problems, including unsanitary living conditions, widespread poverty, and political corruption. New advances in science encouraged people to attend higher education and brought various improvements in living conditions.

The drastic increase in urban population brought many changes in cultural life of the Gilded Age. Politics became the public entertainment for large crowds, where both men and women attended political meetings to hear candidates speak, even though most women were not allowed to vote at that time. It was also the most discussed topic in saloons, which were the social center for working-class men and new immigrants. By 1900, there were more saloons than grocery stores and meat markets. New forms of mass entertainment emerged: movie theaters, art museums, symphony orchestras, vaudeville, sporting events, and circuses.

Darwinism and Realism were two powerful forces in the Gilded Age. Darwin’s “natural selection” and the theory of biological evolution were seen as atheism, challenging many fundamental beliefs. This led to “social Darwinism,” which attracted many supporters, including the oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, and “reform Darwinism,” which later became one of the pillars for the “progressive” movement. Realism was the new movement in art and literature. It emphasized on the real images of America in both beauty and ugliness, resulting from the Civil War, and the impact of modern science.

1920s is known as the “New Era,” in which dramatic changes took place, along with the overthrow of traditional values and the rejection of new values. The impressive economic growth, which stemmed from the booming industry and advances in technology, gave people the American the highest standard of living in the world. It created the new “consumer culture,” converting people from frugal to enthusiastic shoppers. Advertising became a huge enterprise and defined how people behave and how they pursue happiness. With the consumer culture, many comforts and conveniences such as flush toilets, handheld cameras, vacuum cleaners, etc. became widely available among the urban middle class.

The powerful consumer culture generated what is called “mass culture”: more people saw the same advertisements, bought the same products at the same stores. During the 1920s, movies became the chief form of mass entertainment with 80 million viewers a week. The number increased after sound in movies was presented, and in 1930, 115 over 123 million American watched movies weekly. The rise of movies expanded consumer culture, set standards in music, fashion, dancing, and hairstyles, and simulated the sexual revolution. Radio was also very popular, with 41 million radios manufactured in 1920. It changed the patterns of daily lives and transformed jazz music to national craze. The ownership of automobiles became widespread during this time, which became the example of modern mass-production techniques and made spectator sports a national entertainment.

Jazz and Modernism were two dominant influences in the New Era. Jazz was the symbol for the rebelliousness and spontaneity in young Americans during that time. The emergence of sexual revolution, birth control, and new clothing fashions gave women more freedom and reflected the rebellion against traditional female roles. For African American, the Harlem Renaissance in New York was the black first movement in art and literature, showcasing their distinctive contributions to American culture. The theory of relativity of Albert Einstein shaped the idea of Modernists, who believed that everything is relative. Modernist art focused on the unconventional values, while Modernist literature relied on cynicism, which were both the result after the Great War.

The American’s life in late 19th century and in the 1920s both marked many changes in culture, with the rise of urban life and advancements in science. However, as I saw it, the changes in the Gilded Age was more of the discovery of new life, in which people were enjoyed these changes without let those interfering in their everyday lives. While in the New Era, the traditional ways of life and the modern ways of life clashed into each other and fought for influences, which caused many dramatic changes and upset many people. The politics in these two eras were also vastly different. While politics in the Gilded Age was marked by the political corruption and heavy influences of giant corporations, politics in the New Era was marked by the public demand for honest, efficient government and public services, as well as social reform. The way people consume is another contrast: sparing and economical in the Gilded Age, and extravagant and carefree in the New Era.

In both eras, conflicts between city and country, industry and agriculture, as well as the continuing racial and ethnic wars still have not been resolved. As an example, even though women had gained many rights over time, most of these rights were only applied for white women, while women in other races still suffered. In addition, only the middle-class and upper-class benefited from most of the new conveniences and fresh features of cultural life, while generally the poor, with little income, was excluded from them. Farmers were also upset during these two times, as they were ignored by the political process, and the falling crop prices resulted in many farmers leaving farms to move to the cities for better opportunities.

There were some similarities between both eras in cultural life. For example, Realism movement in the Gilded Age, and the Modernism movement in the New Era both took place after a war: Civil War, and the Great War, respectively. It appears that the horrors in these two wars forced people to rethink traditional ways of life. Another reason that caused people to create these movements was the great technological, and scientific advancement. However, while Realists tended to show the less romanticized and more realistic aspect of life, Modernists tended to break all standards of good taste and behave in a shocking way.

Mass entertainment was also introduced in both eras and was well received by people, but it influenced the nation in a different scale. For instance, movies and cinemas first appeared in the Gilded Age. At the time, they were only really popular means of entertainment for working women, while in the New Era, movies became the chief form of entertainment for all Americans. Another example is sports. Even though sports had become a part of popular culture at the end of the 19th century in large cities, it was not until during the 1920s, with widespread automobile ownership and rising income, that it became the nation’s interest.

Role of Industrialization during Gilded Age: Argumentative Essay

The Gilded Age is the era Mark Twain describes as being where wealthy people acquired their wealth through unethical activities and were said to be role models and ideal people. Wealth was all people noticed during this era. All of the unethical things they did to get their money often went unnoticed. The Gilded Age is more commonly known as the transformation period. It occurred from 1865 through the 1900s. Although America changed in many ways, there were two basic categories: Social changes and Economic changes. Social changes were the changes that were brought from industrialization that affect our culture, interactions, relationships, and things of that nature. On the other end of the spectrum, you have economic changes, which were changes usually regarding politics, technology, and progressing through this global level. Throughout the Gilded Age period, industrialization was constantly changing America socially and economically.

Industrialization is known as transforming from an agricultural-based life to a manual based life. Industrialization is essentially the Gilded Age summed up into one word, but when we think of industrialization we usually only think of the inventions. We think of skyscrapers, advanced transportation, elevators, railroads, and monopolies taking place, but the inventions aren’t necessarily the only important parts of the period the effects are very important as well. For example, all of these things: Railroads, advanced transportation, and the other inventions all contributed to the immigration taking place. We neglect the little impacts of industrialization such as the economic and social effects behind this.

When it comes to economics, industrialization played a big role. Industrialization provided lots of benefits for America economically during the Gilded Age. One beneficial example is the increased need for factory workers; job opportunities grew rapidly. Industrialization increased productivity and wealth on a national level because with the availability of jobs with no requirements came lots of willing people, and the wealth came from all of these people. With all of the extra money, America had the opportunity to improve other aspects of life. For example, Andrew Carnegie used his money to establish libraries and donate to improve colleges. Another important figure was John D. Rockefeller, who soon became one of the richest men in the world because of his oil company. Economically he was thriving thanks to industrialization. As far as economics go, in America, you were either rich or poor. The rich were said to have a personal responsibility to do good with their wealth, but some wealthy citizens decided to just act as if they couldn’t bear to help someone beneath them.

However, industrialization did not always have beneficial effects economically. Although job opportunities increased dramatically, working conditions were not always that great. Workers were not always trained to be working with this big machinery, so it was always a risk to go to work. Workers were also granted minimal pay for working hours until reaching exhaustion. Workers had more negative aspects than positive; to benefit at all most had to go through inhumane acts. Since the economically changes plummeted the lower class, they were forced to accept any treatment and any pay to just be able to survive, much less benefit.

Population was not only an economic change from industrialization, but a social change as well. New social classes came into play from the increase in immigrants, which made America more diverse culturally. Another social change that took place regarding the social classes was the clarity between the two before it could have seemed unsure as to how superior the wealthy class was above the lower class, but now it is quite clear. The industrialization never had a bad impact on the wealthy because they could provide gifts for family members, eat with some to spare, and live comfortably. Industrialization led to fancy neighborhoods built for the upper class, and they began to live a lavish lifestyle. Population was a good thing for the world socially because it prevented America from being ignorant to other cultures, and it also helped prepare natives for what life is really like because realistically you are going to meet people and work with people of different ethnic groups, so it helped prepare our civilians.

Although the upper class was living on “cloud nine” with industrialization, that was not the case for all people. For instance, the lower class was crammed, overflowing, woke up every day to work long horrific hours, and still could barely provide enough food to feed a portion. They were forced to suffer as they watched the upper class enjoy full meals and no complaints. Many could find a way to deal with the undesirable lifestyle, but not how unsanitary it became. This overpopulating made coming home horrible and work desirable between the inadequate plumbing to the sickness spreading back and forth. Another socially based downside that industrialization brought to the Gilded Age was all of the rude campaigns and outbursts about how wrong immigration was. America could not even make these people who left everything behind to work under little to no benefits feel accepted and feel comfortable walking the streets without someone making a scene about their presence. All of the rude outbursts led to riots and strikes from natives trying to keep out immigrants and immigrants wanting to fight back and defend themselves.

Industrialization had both ups and downs when it came to the Gilded Age. Some effects changed America for the better, but some we might look back on and still regret today. Overall, industrialization was well worth the downsides it had because without it life, as we know it would be stuck in a period without machinery and everyone, would be set back in how they do things. Life without railroads, newer automobiles, and electricity alone would be unthinkable. Industrialization brought us all of the things that most think they “deserve” or are “entitled” to could have never even occurred.

Analytical Essay on Gilded Age: Issues of Politics, Economics and Slavery

The Gilded Age (the Late 1860s – 1890s) was the time period following the Civil War that brought in much-needed Industrial, populous, and economic growth for the United States of America. Although this period garnered essential evolution, this state-wide technical progression brought upon political, economic, and social issues with it. Problems of the era included “Political Machines”, marginalizing the vote of the citizen, poor treatment of Industrial workers, and a few more to name. Resolutions to bring much-needed reform was needed during this time. Eventually, the change did come, for the most part. This revolution would eventually come in the form of the Progressive Era (the 1890s – 1940s). In this era, solutions to Gilded Age problems came in the form of individual and group entity efforts. Although in result this era still came with problems of its own, the barbaric problems fostered from the preceding age still met it’s closing.

Gilded Age politics came with a number of shady practices, some of which included political machines and the marginalization of citizens votes. One of the most notorious political machines in this period was from that of New York City’s Tammany hall which was a dominant force in democratic party politics up until the early 1900s and is known for its corrupt manipulation tactics. A political machine is “a party organization, headed by a single boss or small autocratic group, that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state.”[footnoteRef:0] The “head” of these groups, who would also be one the ones running for an elected position, would use the resources and affiliates available to them, like big business owners and Immigrants (Mainly the Irish, Italian, and other long time arriving immigrants, so not including the Chinese.) freshly moving into these areas looking for work, to give themselves an exponential boost by taking advantage of these situations. For instance, let’s say the head boss of one of these machines decides to run for a mayoral position, the first thing he’ll do is contact all of the district leaders he has an affiliation with and has them offer benefits to the ward bosses in that district to collect voters for election day. Ward bosses would usually be of either Irish, Italian, or German descent and this would be of an advantage to them because they held control of wards that consisted of people from their respected ethnicity. They’d make offers with immigrants that if they voted for the head bosses, they would find them a place to live in these cultural wards, along with a secure job. This was an offer the new immigrants could not turn down so as a result, the bailout boxes would fill and the head boss would be elected mayor. The progressive era would soon bring in new tactics to end this behavior because of the unfair use of these political machines. This reform came in the form of the secret ballots law. Secret ballots sought out to make sure voter elections would stay completely anonymous. This would make it difficult for political machines to buy people’s votes to gain landslide victories, and level the playing field for party nominees. [0: ]

With new innovations coming into the economy of the gilded age, came new business models. Some of the biggest innovations meant more factory style processes, and this was through all forms of business. From hard steel manufacturing, all the way to the way businesses handled food and medicine, this style made running big businesses much more efficient than earlier times. There was one drawback though, with the increase in efficiency, came a decrease in the quality control of products. Big businesses wanted to increase sales and cut costs, and doing so sometimes meant throwing all types of questionable additives in their supply chain. So much so that a lot of foods consumed at that time were not actually completely safe for consumption. Companies would do things like adding poisonous dyes, to putting food in dangerous and irremovable preservatives, some even went as far as adding dangerous narcotics like heroin in some of their products. Luckily at the time investigative journalism so happened to be on the rise due to the large influx of worker riots and union forming, people wanted to know what exactly was going on in those big factories for all the commotion happening at the time, thus came the birth of the muckrakers. Muckrakers were investigative journalists who held the sole purpose of scooping up the dirt on big factory businesses and exposing them in literary pieces with the purpose of informing the people. These journalists would expose these dangerous practices from the big businesses, and widespread outrage would soon come about. After all, nobody at the time had any way to know if their food was safe, people just assumed that if it was out on the market that it was completely ok for consumption. Around the time of the progressive era, new laws came into play to tackle this dilemma. The Meat Inspection Act, and soon after, the Pure Food and Drug Act came into play and set concrete standards for food companies to meet or else they’d be refused the privilege to sell. To ensure that they’d meet these standards required by law, organizations like the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) were created to inspect and police these businesses for the sake of keeping the American people safe. In result, businesses finally cleaned up their acts, and items much safer for consumption were soon back on the market. Innovation never stopped, regulation only started.

Racism against African Americans was still at an eminent high, even in a post-slavery Gilded Age. African Americans would still receive the short end of the deal when given sharecropping deals, or working for cotton farms as trade. Black workers would literally receive pennies a day for hard labor in the cotton field, it was almost as if slavery had not already been abolished years before. This was a problem for workers and in response, colored farmers alliances popped up all around the south. Many of these alliances would soon meet demise due to many of the members having little to no literacy and persecution from racially motivated lynchings. This wouldn’t stop blacks from generally congregating for other rights though if anything this was added motivation. So in 1909, the spur of the progressive era, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (otherwise known as the NAACP) came about in response to all the disenfranchisement and injustice happening toward the black community at this time. This would set the tone for civil rights movements all throughout the 20th century to ensure colored people would be allowed their God-given rights to live an equal quality of life like their white counterparts.

With the coming and the passing of the Gilded Age, we have seen many innovations, transformations, and new ways of dealing with situations. But with these new solutions came many moral problems, due to the unevolved ways of thinking that was still around at that time. Soon after, the progressive era came in, fixing many of the political, economic, and social problems that still persisted during the evolving of the gilded age. Many of these changes are of which still holds together the fabric of American society to this day.

Bibliography

1. ‘Colored Alliance Demands, 1889.’ Houghton Mifflin Company. Last modified September 11, 1889. http://college.cengage.com/history/ayers_primary_sources/coloredalliance_demands.htm.
2. Croker, Hon. Richard. ‘Tammany Hall and the Democracy.’ North American Review, February 1892.
3. ‘Political Machine | Politics.’ Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/topic/political-machine.
4. ‘Pure Food and Drug Act: A Muckraking Triumph.’ United States American History. Accessed February 18, 2019. https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h917.html.
5. United States Congress. The Statutes at Large of the United States of America from December 1905, to March 1907, Concurrent Resolutions of the Two Houses of Congress. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1907. https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/59th-congress/session-1/c59s1ch3915.pdf.

Benefits of Positive Changes during Gilded Age: Analytical Essay

Industrialization has brought different changes to our way of life. Industrialization is defined as a development of industries in a country or region on a wide scale. I define it as the new changes making our world into what it is today. The Gilded Age occurred from 1870s to the 1900s and it was during the late 19th century. This age brought a rapid growth that was made by technical advances in transportation and manufacturing. These changes were good and bad. Many of these events were a way of the future. This caused an increase in wealth and immigration. It also made a big difference in social and economic changes.

The Gilded Age brought many nice changes and some bad changes by industrialization. These are some ways that social issues have happened: the assimilation of immigrants and Native Americans. These Native Americans are sometimes forced to leave where they lived and abandon their land. They would often have to leave their culture behind and it was not by choice. Some Chinese Immigrants would face problems like discriminoaton throughout education, jobs, and housing. Industrialization caused for all these immigrants to come into the United States. Some other problems by industrialization were that it increased the need for workers in factories which means that even more people/immigrants will be brought in and that will crowd certain areas, a lot of cities will be crowded. These factories were not good either, many had to many people working in them and they had long hard hours to work. These workers were paid very low wages and a lot of dangerous working conditions made the work even harder for them to endure. Many health risks also impacted these people in negative ways that would hurt their lives after they are done working. Child Labor was brought in during the Gilded Age. Children would have to quit school and work to help their families. These factories were not safe for adults and especially not safe for these young children. These children could work in these dangerous factors for hours because there was not a strict laissez-faire policy. This means that most of the regulations were not up to date or correct. Pollution was also getting very bad because of the factories and people.

Some good or better social changes that happened during this time was Urbanization starting to increase. This means that the population of people was increasing by a lot. It allowed many immigrants to come into the United States to work in these factories. This allowed people to have jobs and survive. The Gilded Age caused an increase in wealth because of the factories that were invented. Many social figures came to be known in this age. These figures were Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, and many others. Andrew Carneige was an owner of a steel company. He was a real life example of the Gilded Age because he went from being poor to wealthy which means that there was some hope for people living during this age, but not the poor or unhealthy people. John D. Rockefeller was the founder of standard oil. Theodore Roosevelt was a leader of th Repulican party and later was involved in the progessive movement. Andrew Carnegie was so important during this age because he rose from poverty to being one of the wealthiest individuals in the world. Industrialization changed him by using his steel in new technologies so that his company would expand.

The economic changes brought by Industrialization were very important during the Gilded age as well. These changes would lead us into the future for the good or for the bad. One major problem was that the problems between workers of factories and big business owners were growing. Farming was becoming a problem since new factories, machines and inventions were coming into play. They were producing to many things and that caused prices to go down. Many of these farmers had to give up or lost their land because they could not afford to keep it. Farmers would crop as much as they could, but they would get less and less money. Another economic problems facing the Gilded age was Segregation. It caused racial groups/problems. These economic problems caused the Gilded age to fall a little bit.

Some economic changes during this period were good. One example was that technical advances happened. This and manufacturing happened because of industrialization.

Industrialization brought new people, buildings, inventions, and new people into the United States. These changes showed the United States that things would get better, but they would also get worse. Throught the farming problems and the child labor, some people would say industrialization was bad and shouldn’t have happened, but we needed these things to happen to get us to where we are today in this world and the changes were not all bad. We got new inventions like Andrew Carnegie and the way that he grew from poverty to wealth. The Gilded Age was described as a time in which it appears that a thin layer of prosperity was covering the poverty and corruption that existed in much of society.- Mark Twain. I think that a lot of problems did occur during this age, but we got through it. I believe that the social issues were the biggest problems to me because lots of people would work in these “factories” and become very ill or hurt and no one did anything for them. The economic problems were a big deal too. Like how the farmers lost their money and land because of these factories and buildings. Industrialization causes many problems and many benefits for certain people in this age of time. The Gilded Age was so important because it had a big change with urbanization, social, and economic development/ changes. These effects helped make the Gilded Age into what it is today.

Review of Alan Trachtenberg’s ‘Incorporation of America’

The book ‘The Incorporation of America’ by Alan Trachtenberg depicts that the upcomming of industrial companies, companies and corporatization, the powers that existed at the time controlled the structure of the corporate world that was being developed during the Gilded Age and basically completely rebuilt and designed American culture in ways that were completely opposite to the way the way America had already established itself and its past, it caused a lot of conflict.

The book begins by looking closely at several of the myths (not truths) that came about in the beginning of the rise of business and company at that time. In chapter 1, the author depicts the myth of the West as a symbol of national consistency in a moment in time when unity wasn’t really a thing. From this, The Dawes Act came about. The Dades act was passed to make sure that native americans had land on reservations and were protected. This was used to show the reality of the true west as it set the stage for the corporate industry to plant its roots and take off.

In chapter 2, Trachtenberg talks about the rise of mechanization, it represented progress and newness to come. Technology and innovation growing so fast created a lot of uncertainty and insecurity in the growing economy which forced people to think about things differently then they had in the past.

Chapter 3 tells about the battle between labor and capital in those years back then as a cultural conflict and it shaped what we consider to be American Values and it also helped shape or set the foundations for what we define social classes to be. There was a big issue with fighting over values and the state was on the side of capital to the point of inflicting violence on its own citizens and people. From this arguing and bickering the idea of having a collective voice came about and people started coming together to voice their opinions about things to make changes happen in the world.

Chapter 4, it talks about the city and how it grew and began to expand to take over a lot of rural land. Homes, places of employment, and the marketplace became part of bigger cities that were centered around designed for production and consumption. One neat thing that came about from this change was the birth of the department store! The department store was used as a way to show mass quantities of items to a lot of people at the same time making things readily available.

In chapter 5, Trachtenberg does on to discuss the corporate class’s shots to influence the cultural dominance. The american version and perception of reality was attempted to be shaped by mass producing and creating a high culture and it was a form of control over the people. Trachtenberg views political discord in this time as a fight over the soul of how Americans hold, view and themselves.

Chapter 6 talks about the Realism movement which was a form of art where painters used real life things to paint or draw pictures of in painting and literature and chapter 7 looks at the cultural symbolism reguarding the White City at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago which depicts a very broad idea of culture. Trachtenberg talks about everything from politics and business, painting, literature, novels,, from urban planning to advertising.

Basically the book is about Trachtenberg’s analysis of what was happening in American at that time. Trachtenberg also illustrates and talks about how the bigger picture and the much broader uncertainty and discord of social, political, and economic relations put itself right in the middle of what was at the time popular culture. It also shows us how incorporation and the rise of corporate culture changed the way Americans viewed themselves, America itself as well as how they look at the world.

But, in the end, this is a book about the death of the original American ideology and the way things changed during that time to make America what it is today. There was a lot of cultural death and change that occurred in the Gilded Age at the hands of incorporation and the expansion of companies and the changing of how people think .

Overall I really liked and enjoyed reading this book. I learned a lot about the Gilded Age and liked learning about how America changed over time. It was cool to learn about how the companies and industries had such a big impact on the way things were and how America was shaped. It was also nice to learn about how Americans changed the way that they approached life in general with everything being affected to the extent that it was by the influence of the industries, even the social classes were shaped and changed.

Review of Burton W. Folsom Jr.’s ‘The Myth of the Robber Barons: a New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America’

Author Burton W. Folsom Jr.’s book ‘The Myth of the Robber Barons; A New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America’ is an excellent example of a book which presents an evidence-based argument. He divides the book into seven chapters based on the most prominent business Moghuls during their era. The author uses historical anecdotes to prove that government intervention in businesses in the form of subsidies, taxations, or exclusivity deals are almost always a bad idea and have historically never worked. He explains how in the past government intervention in business has always lead to the business failing to be able to compete against its rivals which were self-funded. He shows us how counterintuitively, federal funding inevitably leads to higher prices for the consumers. Federal funding also leads to increased amount of corruption at the higher levels.

In the first chapter he entrepreneurs into two categories, market entrepreneurs and political entrepreneurs. A market entrepreneur succeeds by offering people a cheap price and a political entrepreneur succeeds by getting government assistance to offer a product/good/service. He talks about how much of a revolution steamboat were compared to mechanized boats and how the New York legislature granted Robert Fulton exclusivity when it comes to steamboat operations for 30 years. This leads to the emergence of a young man named Cornelius Vanderbilt who was determined to beat Futons monopoly rates. The rest of the chapter goes over the knitty gritty of how Vanderbilt outpriced Fulton out of all the markets, eventually chasing him out of the steamboat and iron hulled boat industry.

The story of how James J. Hill built and profitably ran the St. Paul and Pacific railway line against his federally funded and subsidized opponents. Hill used very well planned routes which were the cheapest to build and maintain, while his competitors, spent extravagant amounts of money trying to build the most scenic routes. Once again, Folsom proves, that a frugal approach to spending with competitive pricing allows Hill to make a profit without government assistance.

Chapter 3 is the story of how the Scranton family beat the odds to locally produce iron rails thereby allowing them to undercut their competition which was mainly imported iron rails which were imported from London. Over time the Scranton’s did face some local competition which did use government subsidies to try and beat them, but none of them could compete with the Scranton’s efficient manufacturing process and customer service.

The author proceeds to discuss how Charles Schwab revolutionized the steel industry through his partnership with Carnegie steel. Schwab and Carnegie believed in treating their employees well and paying them well. He also believed in investing in the latest bleeding edge technology, instead of forcing his employees to work overtime to improve productivity. With the help of Charles Schwab, Carnegie steel took over the steel industry in the United States of America.

In a place which was considered barren and dry of oil, John D. Rockefeller proved to us that through persistence, hard work and pricing anything can be achieved. Using smart competitive pricing, he priced out the Russians and beat the Russian oil industry. For most of his life Rockefeller was considered a “greedy businessman”, however, towards the latter half of his life he started donating most of his money. His own personal philanthropic efforts lead to the eradication of yellow fever, meningitis and the hookworm parasite without the help of the government.

The story of Andrew Mellon is a fascinating one. He as the secretary of the treasure, persuded congress to cut taxes, hoping that it would lead to a increase in overall federal revenue. this plan did work, since lower taxes reduced the burden on the general population which allowed the people to take risks such as starting businesses. Although he is considered the person responsible for the good times in the early 1920s, he is also considered one of the people who was responsible for the Great Depression.

Positives and Negatives of the Gilded Age

Between the 1870s and 1900s, the United States underwent major changes that led to the increase and growth of big businesses. This was a big turning point for the United States. This led to our economy becoming one of the best in the world. Some things that led to this increase in industrialization were technological advances, an abundance of natural resources, population growth, and improved transportation.

First of all, this industrialization period, also known as the Gilded Age, had some positive and negative sides. One great thing that happened during this time was the technological advances. One of the most popular technological advances was the telephone. This invention by Alexander Graham Bell blew away the telegraph. This invention opened communication worldwide. This was very important during this time because it allowed people to communicate much faster, communicate far distance, and helped lessen the chances of miscommunication happening. It also saved many businesses money because they did not have to travel to get a message through which made businesses more efficient. Another important invention would be the first car made by Henry Ford. This happened in the later years of the Gilded Age. The invention of the car modernized the transportation industry tremendously. It allowed people to be able to travel wherever they wanted when they wanted a lot quicker. It also helped people make quicker trades. Not only did this help the people, but it boosted our economy. This led to an increase in oil and steel; This even led to an increase in motels for travelers. This was a very important step in history because this was a major stepping stone to future technology inventions. The last example would be the light bulb. This invention was one of the most important inventions in history. The light bulb allowed people to extend our work hours into the night and helped them travel safely at night. This raised our economy tremendously because it allowed the factory workers to work well within the night instead of just the day. Not only did this help boost our businesses and economy, but it changed how people lived day-to-day. There are so many more technological advances that happened during this time that led to where we are today.

Another reason the industrialization increased was because of our abundance of natural resources. America is very rich in natural resources. Some of our most popular natural resources are water, iron, coal, oil, and lumber. For example, water helped power many industrial machines. The natural resources of iron and coal led to us being able to build railroads, build buildings, and many other things. This also helped create and provide jobs for labor and miners. With the invention of the steam engine and the car, coal and oil became very useful. This created many jobs in the oil field industry. Our abundance of forests allowed us to have timber to build buildings, and it provided more labor jobs. All of these have something in common; The abundance of natural resources created many jobs for the American people. This helped boost our economy and allowed big businesses to grow.

Another example of how the industrialization increased is because of population growth and improved transportation. During this time, our population grew tremendously. More jobs had been created, and more places to live. Our cities had transportation and the cities were growing. This led to urbanization throughout the country. Transportation played a major role in this because people that lived in the city were able to use transportation to get to work. This was very appealing to many people especially ones looking for a job.

Yes, so many positive things came out of the industrial revolution. However, what about the bad sides? The bad sides of industrialization and big businesses would include a phrase called Robber Barons. Many people picked up this term because it is known for the “greed, ruthlessness, and corruption that characterized the late nineteenth century industrialists and capitalists” (p. 551). These robber barons held industrial monopolies and an unbelievable amount of wealth. A man by the name of Johann Jakob Astor was a prime example. He owned a fur company that became one of the leading ports in a few countries. This became to be the first American business monopoly. Another man that is considered a red baron is Jay Cooke. He owned his own bank, and is known to have financed the civil war. He is also known to have triggered the panic of 1873. Andrew Carnegie is a name a lot of people know. However, he is known to be one of the top red barons. He grew up as the average man and supported workers’ rights, however, he destroyed unions. He could make steel at a lower price than anyone else. This caused a problem. All of these men played a major role in the industrial age.

Overall, this period in time happened to be one of the biggest turning points in United States history. Some may argue that there were negative sides to the industrialization period. However, the increase in technological advances, natural resources, population growth, and transportation show that this improved the United States a lot more than hurt it. The Gilded Age will be remembered for bringing America to be one of the leading economies in the world.