In class on Tuesday we watched a short video which Mr. Stewart called 'Big Businessed'. It basically talked about the economy in the late 18th century. We learned that people began to believe theories that God granted you the ability to make money and that he wanted you to make money. Because of this idea churches began to believe that if you were not wealthy you were committing a sin. Additionally, another idea that the United States believed was that if you worked hard you would become wealthy. This, however, is basically false because many people worked incredibly long hours, 11-12 hours a day, sacrificing time with their families and their own health to make money, yet they only made $500-$600 a year. So I came to the conclusion that America was basically unreasonable since they basically trapped people in their jobs because they worked all day and got barely paid, yet in the society they 'didn't work hard' because they were not rich.
Another idea that was discussed in the video was 'Social Darwinism' and survival of the fittest. The main people who were at the top made monopolies and had control of a lot of the industrial production. However, when they got to the top they didn't really want to continue to battle other countries so they didn't really follow social Darwinism completely.
Additionally, 1% of the American companies controlled 1/3 of the industrial production. Are there companies that are this powerful today? If so, how did they get this powerful? If not, why are there no companies this powerful today?
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ReplyDeleteI would say that today, there are some pretty huge companies in different industries, especially in the tech industry, however there really isn't any monopolies or extremely powerful companies in today's era (at least in the US). This is because after entrepreneurs like Rockefeller became so powerful, the US started working towards limiting the powers of companies such as through the Sherman Antitrust Act (which prevented companies from creating omnipotent financial trusts) and other modern laws, which started started becoming enforced more and more over time. So today, I wouldn't go as far as to say that there are any huge monopolies in any industries in our country mainly due to the fact that the American government has really cracked down on those issues since the early 20th century. Also, I wanted to point out that even though it was difficult for uneducated workers to succeed in the US during our Industrial Revolution due to companies creating monopolies, it wasn't necessarily impossible. There were people such as Andrew Carnegie who went from rags to riches through actively seeking an education and working hard in different industries, and this is ultimately why the beliefs in Social Darwinism grew so much -- they weren't unrealistic to the point where it was impossible for people to become rich, it's just that it was unlikely.
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DeleteI agree with your point Matthew and tech companies like Google and Facebook, which would have been monopolies without the laws restricting them today, also have multiple people who own percents of the company. This prevents one person from benefiting solely and the shared interests may also be a factor in why some larger companies are not as powerful in a negative light
DeleteI agree with your point Matthew and tech companies like Google and Facebook, which would have been monopolies without the laws restricting them today, also have multiple people who own percents of the company. This prevents one person from benefiting solely and the shared interests may also be a factor in why some larger companies are not as powerful in a negative light
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