Essay On Poverty During The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age was a period of enormous economic growth and ostentatious displays of wealth during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Industrialization dramatically changed U.S. society and created a newly dominant group of rich entrepreneurs and an impoverished working class (The American Promise: A Concise History; 479). An analysis of poverty during The Gilded Age has been documented by various authors, these documents talk about what could’ve been done to help the impoverished during this time period. Most of the writers from the Gilded Age viewed social inequality as a problem, some to a higher degree than others. William Graham Sumner attempted to reach social equality by having humanitarians, philanthropists, and reformers come up with a plan to help people in poverty. This group wanted equality for those in poverty so bad, they began to blame the other classes, but while doing so, they forgot about the rights of those classes. Andrew Carnegie believed that the rich are more “fit” than anyone else and that they may spend their money as they choose. Henry George explains how and why poverty is a crime. George said people in poverty …show more content…
Sumner put the impoverished group ahead of any others and put all of his focus towards them. Andrew Carnegie, on the other hand disagreed with the ideas of helping those in poverty. He believed that rich people are superior to everyone else and should be allowed to use their money as they choose. Carnegie’s mentality was that if you were rich you should give a limited amount of money to those in need or “less fit”, but not a huge amount cause there’s a possibility of it going to waste (Document