Captain of Industry or Robber Baron?

Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?

As the Civil War came to a conclusion, the new advances in industry ascended. Typically lower and middle-class men thrived to find ways to improve the falling of the economy system; industrialists. Although the industrialists of the late 19th Century were indeed wealthy and successful leaders, they were only able to reach that level by using the power they obtained as robber barons. Most industrialists who made it to their supreme position in the industry, were able to scam the public that led to the corruption, greed, and economic problems of Corporate America today. While they made advancements that greatly helped the public, they also caused and worsened problems.

Among the most known robber barons in the mid 1900s, the steel industry’s obvious dominant leader was Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie paid his workers low wages for twelve hour work days to try to increase his workers productivity, and creating a sweat shop. His workers wages were so, low they could not afford for their family to eat, pay rent, or send their children to school. This caused a big problem for the families who worked for Carnegie, because if they asked for higher wages, he would fire them on the spot. Carnegie was able to do this because there were thousand of other families waiting to take the spot. Carnegie was also able to spread the idea of Social Darwinism that was vastly also supported by the beliefs of laissez-faire. The result of the new idea of laissez-faire gave incentive for the government to ignore child labor and poor working conditions. While Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller's companies treated their employees horribly, they did give back to their communities through ‘philanthropy’. A common question within families was where extra money for support would come from. This is linked to the problems of child labor. Due to the fact that money and support was largely needed in almost all families, it was a necessity for child labor in a family. This was a problem for families and children most of all because, they were not entitled to education and weren't able to get a proper education. This posed a problem because the children were not able to gain the proper education then not be as intelligent to get an appropriate job that would fulfill family support more than working as a child did. The cycle of poverty would start again. Dominant industrialists often created a monopoly for their products. Carnegie achieved this by purchasing other businesses and steel companies, then making his own profit out of them and creating a “trustworthy” reputation for it; in other words horizontal integration.Ultimately, this caused many problems for the customers because