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Argumentative Essay On The Gilded Age

1318 Words6 Pages
Wealth, poverty, technology, decadence, the Gilded Age was a time of change and uprooting of past systems, schools of thought, and standards. It was a time of both hope and doubt for the majority of the population and brought many to be empty handed or exceedingly wealthy. The dynamic between rich and poor was shifting to a gap of wealth never before seen in the young country. The gilded age’s built up wealth disparity faded away over time. Yet today it seems that a resurgence of these features is rearing its ugly head again. Along with parallels in the rise of technology, the sensationalism in media, and the economic consequences of the two it is my belief that we have entered into a second gilded age. Today we can see our economic situation becoming more and more “gilded”, that is on the outside there is grand technological, medical, and societal progress, however, looking deeper, we can find a darker underbelly of our social and political reality. As in the gilded age, the focus of concern is a disparity of power and wealth. According to Forbes (Adams) only 18% of people trust business leaders to do the right thing and only 15% trust business leaders to tell the truth. These statistics shows a great divide between those who have power in today’s society and their reputation as honest and hardworking people. We can also see that the divide is getting bigger as according to Oxfam International in 2017 the top 1% of the world took in 82% of the entire world’s
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The Gilded Age was one in which the rich became richer, and the poor became destitute. The middle and lower class were forced into dangerous, labor intensive jobs

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