Changes In The Gilded Age

The Gilded age was an era that brought with it massive economic changes during the 1870s to the 1890. One of the largest changes was the developments of a more industrial economy. There was a huge shift from agricultural jobs towards manufacturing jobs and similar jobs in cities. About 11 million Americans had moved from farms to cities in 1870 to 1920. These changes proved beneficial to most of the American population however brought with it a series of drawbacks. This new industrial economy allowed the production of goods to decrease while profit margins soared. This created a large divide between the rich and the poor. The richest 1% of Americans in 1890 of the day had the same income than the lower 50% of the nation combined. The same group of rich Americans also owned more land that the remained 99% of the population. Most of the rich people didn’t not care much for the safety or consequences of pursuing such high profit margins at the cost of their employees. Furthermore working conditions were far from ideal. One such example of this was the
During this time the newly developing industries and city jobs held huge promise to people both domestically and abroad. This new influx immigration changed the nation’s culture quite dramatically due to the arrival of mainly Europeans and some Chinese whom also brought their life styles with them. This would eventual lead people into describing the United States as a melting pot. However this process of assimilation was not a smooth one. Many Caucasian Americans were at first not accepting of the immigrants and in many cases our right discriminated against them. This lead to famously well-known store fronts signs saying “help wanted, No Irish Need Apply”. The Chinese also suffered in the form of lower wages when compared to their Caucasian counterparts. This was evident in the initial stages of the construction of the transcontinental railroad