Along with these issues, the Gilded Age was a difficult time for immigrants to the United States. Among other things, they struggled with abysmally poor housing conditions. Oftentimes, immigrants lived in tenements, buildings that were similar in structure and appearance to today's apartments, and they had awful plumbing and ventilation and also lacked some basic amenities like beds. The tenements were also very expensive to live in, despite the scanty and filthy conditions they were in. Once these things were brought to light for the general public, please realized just how greedy the owners of these tenements were, as well as the owners of the factories who cut corners around worker safety and hygiene.
Thankfully, in the modern age, we have laws regulating so many of these things, largely because of the Gilded Age and all of the awful things people dealt with. However, greed is still a very prevalent problem in the world today and it's effects can be seen across multiple industries, especially politics. We don't need to look very hard to find stories in the news where the root of the problem was someone or some company wanting money and prioritizing income over people. Although we were able to fix some of the worst problems of the Gilded Age, the core of it still exists and thrives in today's world.
Image Credit: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Examining-Labor-Working-Conditions-in-the-Gilded-Age-A-Gallery-Walk-Exercise-3208715 Public Domain
It's scary to think how dangerous those living conditions were and for how long they lasted. It seems obvious nowadays that you wouldn't stay in conditions like that, but they really didn't have much choice.
ReplyDeleteI would disagree that the core of greediness at others expense still thrives in the world. It is obviously present, but there are many corporate owners like Bill Gates who are trying to fix the world. Gates's foundation has almost single handedly funded the extermination of Polio in Africa. Companies like Tesla offered to help get the boys in Thailand out from the cave, and energy companies like exxon release world energy predictions and invest huge amounts of money into helping climate change. Does greed still exist? Yes, but I would not say that it is at the heart of our society today.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there was some huge tycoons and companies like Gates and Tesla, that are doing good, but I think the greed still exists on perhaps an individual scale. I don't think that Gates is a bad person, but how differently would he act if there wasn't a camera constantly in his face? There is a cool docu-series on Netflix call "Nightmare tenets, Slum landlords" and it really shows that the only difference between regulations during the Gilded Age and today is media coverage.
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