How Did The Federal Government Regulate The Economy During The Gilded Age

What should have been the role of the federal government in regulating the economy during the Gilded Age? During the Gilded Age, the federal government’s involvement in the economy hugely impacted the American citizen’s way of life. Reformers, such as President Rutherford Hayes, focused on corporations and how they abused the people by earning money to the expense of the workers. They also strived for better working conditions and wages to prosper in a class society. While it tried various solutions to help the economy, the government should have focused on establishing labor laws, disproving Social Darwinism, and creating more useful tariffs. The United States government addressed problems with the method of managing economics. Companies used the “spoils system” to influence and reward people for joining a certain political party (Shi and Tindall, 643). This meant that workers not participating in politics lost potential money to others who labored the same amount. To combat this view, Hayes expressed his idea of basing pay on only merit; the more one worked, the more payment he or she received. Another president caused this new system to be established with his assassination. The Pendleton Act made government jobs competitive; furthermore, this
Darwinism combines Darwin’s “natural selection” and Herbert Spencer’s “ survival of the fittest” to justify class distinctions (Shi and Tindall, 636). This kept the working poor at the bottom of the social and economic ladder while the rich reaped the benefits of the poor’s work. The federal government could have conducted experiments and given examples of persons, like Andrew Carnegie, who had gained power. After becoming a millionaire, Carnegie used his wealth to build hospitals, libraries, and universities (Doc B). Had the government responded this way, then American social classes would be less distinct, and the economy would have been