The gilded age lead to progressive reforms by attempting to fix the problems from the gilded age. The gilded age was a time of unregulated business, monopolies, and the abuse of workers. During the gilded age business men got huge profits from the new economy. Powerful people formed trusts to monopolize goods that were in high demand. Like Andrew Carnegie for example he built a giant steel empire. His business increased profits, and also eliminated middle men. And also John D Rockefeller standard oil company he sold one type of product in numerous markets. These two men didn’t care much about consumers and did everything they could to increase profits. Labor didn’t work as well as big businesses did. The national labor union was formed after