Things Haven’t Changed
The Gilded Age was a time when America looked beautiful and golden on the outside but ugly and corrupt on the inside. Rephrasing author Cashman’s statement, New Inventions were created like Electricity, Telephone, and the Bessemer Process. Transcontinental Railroads really had the Gilded Age starting off fast. Railroads lead to growth in industry and also created time zones as well. All of the owners for these railroads and factories were known as Robber Barons. Robber Barons bribed the weak central government to support them with money. America would look like they were being productive on the outside but they were really hurt and destroyed on the inside(S.Cashman). The Gilded Age and America were different in many ways but they were similar when it came to economic, social, and political problems.
America and the Gilded Age were similar economically when in terms of unemployment. Today, it is incredibly hard to find a job and it was even harder during the Gilded Age to hold on to a job. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states, “The number of unemployed persons (14.9 million) and the unemployment rate (9.6 percent) were little changed in August. From May through August, the jobless rate remained in the range of 9.5 to 9.7 percent”(Bureau of L.S.). Many jobs today require a lot of education and many people or adults do not have that experience; during the Gilded Age, everyone could find a job but could not keep it because the Robber Barons did not want to pay a lot for workers. So the Robber Barons would lay off the old workers and hire new ones that would work for less. This relates to today because nowadays, many experienced workers are getting laid off because brand new educated workers are coming in for less money; the Robber Barons in the Gilded Age would take anyone, experienced or not, because all they cared about was the job getting done and the new workers would work for less.
One big social problem that America and the...