Growing industrialism of the Gilded Age Essay

The growing industrialism of the fantastic Age was indeed a threat to American Democracy. The American disposal stood idly by as the Industrialists became more and more powerful. The Preamble of the enumeration that is the foundation of this great country, The Constitution of the United States, readsWe, the raft of the United States, in order to form a perfect Union, establish Justice, insure interior(prenominal) tranquillity, provide for the common defense, farm the ordinary welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.The American G everywherenment was non doing its best to ensure domestic tranquillity or to promote general welfare. Major Industrialists of the time were not kept in check, and the working caste citizen paid for it big time. Company towns, the presence of monopolies, and an inactive government each contributed to this threat to American Democracy.Durin g the Gilded Age many large companies took over entire towns. Everybody in that particular town worked for that company. These were c bothed company towns. The large companies replaced all the stores that already existed in that town with their own stores. To keep the citizens of that town from dismission to early(a) towns to buy supplies they printed their own money and the workers were paid with that. This allowed the large companies to lodge an unfair amount for the goods sold in their stores. All ambition was eliminated in that town. Competition is the major principle behind the American economy and last the American Democracy. With go forth competition, weather it be between companies for a profit or politicians for a political office, this great American Democracy would fail.Company towns were in like manner a center for political corruption. many immigrants that came to this country were given a job and a home in a company town. In exchange for these gifts they were ma de to vote for candidates that the company supported. This undermines the basic selling stay of American Democracy which was that government was of the people, by the people and forthe people. At this consign American Democracy was more like a government of the Industrialists, by the Industrialists and for the Industrialists.Industrialists monopolies were not limited to the control over towns. The major Industrialists as well as blanket(a) their monopolies into businesses. If ABC corporation manufactured steel, they would buy out all of the other businesses that manufactured steel. ABC corporation might also buy out businesses that sold them the supplies to make steel. With this monopoly in place, ABC corporation would now fundamentally be fitting to manufacture steel for only the cost of labor.Because so many powerful Industrialists such as Carnegie and Rockefellar controlled monopolies, the working class was erst again punished. Not only could these men charge unfair amoun ts for their products, they could also pay the workers unfair wages. If a worker was tired of working for unfair wages and quit his job, he would be unable to find some other job with better wages. Because there were no other better jobs to be found large corporations also forced workers to work in vulnerable work environments. In these monopolies, that important concept of competition was once again eliminated and American Democracy was threatened by this.Through all of this, the American government did nothing. The government did little to stop the forming of monopolies. Because government did not spirit in and stop the major Industrialists competition was virtually eliminated. It is well know that competition is the backbone of Americas economy and always has been. It is competition that allows America to have a free-market economy. However, it is as equally true to opine that competition is an important part in government. Politicians were able to compete for the votes of on ly the major Industrialists, and still win an election.Those major Industrialists were so powerful that they were able to control who people voted for, as stated previously. The Industrialists had the politicians in their back pocket. If a politician wanted to get elected, he could most likely do that by siding with major Industrialists on important issues. The lower could be completely ignored. Because of this, politicians competed for the votes of only the major Industrialists and ignored the middle and lowerclasses.Many people may say that it is not governments job to do anything. However, those people should refer back to the Preamble of the Constitution. The Preamble states that one of the purposes of this union is to promote the general welfare of the people. By allowing the major Industrialists to eliminate competition in business and in government, the American Democracy was threatened. It became increasingly obvious that American Democracy was not promoting the general welf are of the nation, thus not doing its job.