Gilded Age Capitalism Analysis

On October twenty-ninth, 1929, investors on Wall Street traded about sixteen million shares in a single day on the New York Stock Exchange. Billions of dollars were lost that day causing thousands of investors to be wiped out. This day would come to be called "Black Tuesday." After Black Tuesday the economic state of America and the rest of the industrialized world took a turn for the worse. The ten years after the stock market crash was the deepest and longest lasting economic depression in history up to that time know as the Great Depression.

Since wealth is distributed somewhat equally in a communist economy, this system is nonexistent. Because of this “everyone is equal in communism... [leaving] a great divide of the class[es] in capitalism.” (from “Capitalism vs Communism”). However, since you own your property in the US, you are taxed for it, in the form of property taxes. In north korea they don 't pay these taxes, since the government would be taxing themselves. The only competition that they have is they international competition such as trade with other countries; in the US we have a free market with unlimited

Robert Reich’s ‘Saving Capitalism’ Robert Reich’s concern with capitalism is that we may be coming too top heavy that capitalism cannot be sustained. This meaning these large corporations and wealthy individuals are controlling the market too much. It is only a matter of time before it all collapses. Robert Reich points out the reason why capitalism is declining in this country is because, the upper class is controlling the market, the middle class is shrinking, and wages have been stagnated for a couple decades. Since the upper class is controlling the market, they make sure the market will work in their favor, and not for the rest of the population.

In addition with such the rising of industrial the citites grew which lead to immigiration and also the creation of the hull house. The life in the 19th-century for labor worker was from far easy. With all the wealth being generateing during the Gilded age very little of its wealth were given to the wokers. Even the best wages for a industrial worker were low, with long hours, working in awfully poor conditions. With safety rules and regulations being unexisted, it was hard to blame employers responsible.

In capitalism, the upper-class keep getting richer by exploiting the lower working class, leaving a wide gap between the wealthy and the impoverished. Instead of splitting the population and using hardworking people unfairly, socialism allows an equal share among everyone so there is not a huge split between the wealth of a group. The packers and factory leaders all use the

Businesses could not afford to slow downproduction during the Panic, so they continued to keep their prices high, but the people didn’thave access to the scarce money. Not only were businesses charging high prices, but also thePhiladelphia and Reading Railroad went bankrupt, causing less modes of transportation for work-ers and farmers. In total, over 15,000 companies went bankrupt during the Panic and the unem-ployment was the highest in history.Labor Unions were also created during the Gilded Age, which added to the idea of theGilded Age being truly “gilded”. The American Federation of Labor was one of the first laborunions created in the United States. The AF of L wanted “unionism” and opposed socialism.

The way we look at the Modern economic theory is that humans are driven by greed and that more is better than less, is not the only way to look at the issues of production and distribution like the hunter-gatherers society. I would say that it is natural to guess that the world is separated “haves” and “have nots” since some societies disallow ownership and inequality distributions. Others have Scarcity issues that they worry about, but according to hunter-gatherers lives, their lives were successful. They did not have any issues in the way they lived and that their lives were fulfilling and

population and economy grew very promptly and many wealthy people lived very fancy lives. The Gilded Age happened about 60-30 years before the Great Depression, however some people think that the Gilded Age is the cause of the Great Depression. The rights of the few in this situation happens to be the rich people because there is only a select few that are financially able to live their lives without any stress or worrying about money. On the other hand the power of the majority is the normal people of the world that are not as wealthy and do not make nearly the same amount as the rich people. The tension between the upper class and the lower class is caused by the pure fact of jealousy and not being nearly close financially.

Gatsby used the American dream to build his wealth to get Daisy. In the book he is the only one who uses the American dream for a a for a noble cause. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made”(Fitzgerald 136-145). They are careless and showy and this is the only thing they have to show for their success. The rich are only seen a successful because of the money that people think they have.

He acknowledges an inequality between the rich and the poor – however this is where the similarities between them end. Marx and Engels find that the bourgeoisie are able to become wealthy through the oppression of the proletariat. This is in contrast to Paine, who writes, “Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches”. He believes that avarice keeps humans from being poor, and at the same time, great wealth frightens them. For Paine, the greatest inequality found is that between that tyrannical king and his subjects.

Today if you ask most Americans their view on capitalism and whether they think it’s good or bad, majority of them will tell you that capitalism is good. Why, because capitalism is how most Americans make their money, capitalism is what drives the economy to grow. Why get rid of something that has been implemented in the U.S. for the last couple of decades? The rest of Americans will tell you that capitalism is based off of greed and money hungry corporations scheming to make their next dollar. Personally, I feel that capitalism is not a good economic system, and that it will always be a burden to the environment around us.

70% consumer spending is from the middle class according to Reich. They are actually benefiting the economy and unlike the top 1 all they do is save. I do believe that distribution and wealth is definitely unfair. It is only common sense. Why would you take more away from those who are barely making it?

Finally, the growth of the colonies positively impacted the rich as well, as they received the profits and benefits from the expansions. With one percent of property owners owning forty four percent of the wealth, it shows how the majority of the wealth was given to the rich, and not distributed among the other classes at all, deepening the division. This is an example of comparison, showing the deep division between the upper class, in contrast to

Buying and selling companies was more profitable than running them. Foner argues that “making deals, not making products, became the way to get rich” (Foner 837). This left a large portion of Americans economically stagnant. King claims that “the richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually” (King 191). King is saying that some people have developed a greed for success and wealth, and have misplaced all ethical thought for others in society.

Conflict sociologists see this skewness as a problem in society. The people who become of wealth stay in wealth because they control the power due to the mass amount of money they have compared to the rest of the population. When we say wealthy, we are discussing the top two percent of wealthy people in America. The top two percent of people own over half the total wealth in the United States. Many cities and even states do not contain a single person that qualifies as being a part of the top two percent of wealthiest people in this country.