During The Gilded Age Is Greed Good

Is Greed Good?
During the Gilded Age, workers, bosses, and ethnic groups came into conflict with one another’s views such as selfishness and deception. The desire and drive for wealth, power, and revenge is greed, whether it is a positive or negative yearning for those wants. Greed simultaneously divides and unifies American individuals by means of rebellion, competition, and the mindset of superiority among lower class individuals. The Gilded Age sparked the unification of workers for their demands by rebellious and violent actions due to their greediness. Destruction spoke boldly for the workers that joined together for higher wages. Their desire for these wages eventually broke into violence and exhibited the passion towards their

The local townspeople gathered at the railyard to show their support for the “STRIKERS.” Violence seemed to create fear for companies and bosses; the greed of the workers spoke clearly through strikes and riots. The fight against the employers selfishness and abilities to cut workers pay flourished the beginning of unions. Unions brought workers together with common interests and opinions to show that they had numbers to fight with. In the cartoon, “One Big Union,” states at the bottom, “The hand that will rule the world-One Big Union,” and shows a large fist, along with worker’s fists raised in the air, that symbolizes unification and agreement in views of the company’s operations. Not only individual strikers committed harmful actions, but unions were a group of combined strikers that caused severe destruction throughout towns as seen in The Great Upheaval. On the other hand of striker’s actions that were motivated by greed, some may say companies and bosses enforced pay cuts to go towards other needs, such as charity and the poor because they needed a helping hand. John D. Rockefeller wisely invested in the oil industry which started the Standard Oil Company. He was so

The torment and statements made towards the Chinese were discriminating because of the other ethnic groups, such as German, Irish, and American that treated them unfairly. The words used, the beatings, and the movements to get rid of skillful workers and useful techniques in the society were targeted toward the Chinese. The Chinese were easily discriminated due to the reason that they could be pointed out in a crowd. Jealousy, greed, and hopefulness to send away the Chinese was a frequent thought throughout many ethnic groups. As stated below in the Chinese Exclusion Political Cartoon, 1871, “In this cartoon, we see Columbia, the feminine symbol of the United States, protecting a Chinese man against a gang of Irish and German thugs. At the bottom it says ‘Hands off-Gentlemen! America means fair play for all men.’” The cartoon shows viewers that the Irish and German are holding weapons aimed ready to use against the hated Chinese. These violent ethnic groups blamed the Chinese for stealing crucial jobs and opportunities. When one thing led to another, the Chinese were eventually mocked by a variety of groups and stereotyped as thieves of opportunities. Motivation behind excluding the Chinese from American rights became enforced with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This Exclusion Act prohibited the immigration of Chinese