Government practices Government supported laissez-faire economics Means “hands off” Government does very little regulation Result=very wealthy businesses and lots of corruption and little competition

Social Darwinism Idea that the best individuals will succeed The survival of the fittest Government should do very little

Robber barons Andrew Carnegie Built a giant steel firm Bought out competition and provides of raw materials and transportation of his goods Known as vertical consolidation

John D. Rockefeller Another robber baron Controlled Standard Oil Bought other oil companies This is horizontal consolidation=controlling competition at one step in the process of a product.

Other robber barons Cornelius Vanderbilt: Railroad monopolist J. P. Morgan: banking monopolist Robber barons did philanthropy work JDR philanthropy was attacked as "tainted money"; 1910 Puck cartoon shows him purifying it through a foundation

Monopolies and trusts Robber barons created monopolies Where a firm controls all the competition Also created trusts Companies agree to work together

What’s wrong with this? What’s wrong with having monopolies and no competition?

Sherman Anti-trust Act Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust act to outlaw trusts and monopolies Difficult to enforce

Working conditions Conditions were terrible Long hours Dangerous conditions Poor living conditions Child Labor To improve conditions formed labor unions

Unions Group of workers who want to protect their rights Knights of Labor: unskilled/skilled workers demanded reforms in child labor, safety, hours (8 hr day), equal pay for women American Federation of Labor: skilled workers demanded higher pay, shorter work weeks.

Strikes Strikes resulted and usually ended in violence. Government usually sent in troops against the unions

Notable Strikes Haymarket Square Riot: laborers held a riot in Haymarket Square in Chicago. A bomb was thrown by a protester, police fired on strikers and several were injured Homestead Strike: Carnegie hired Pinkertons (private security) to end a union strike, violence broke out, strike was crushed Pullman Strike: laborers for the railroad went on strike and shut down the railroads, federal troops brought in, people were hurt and lost their jobs.