Economic Inequality In The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age was marked with industrialization, economic growth, and technological advances, while also being riddled with corruption. Later, after World War I, the United States was in the Jazz Age, the 1920s. In this decade, the economy was steady and the war was over, meaning Americans were ready to celebrate. The 1920s were filled with lavish parties, such as those in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The roaring twenties were also a surge for Progressivists. They advocated for Prohibition, which was granted in the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, as well as equal rights, conservation, and political reform. However, by the closing of this extravagant decade, the stock market crashed, in October, 1929. This was the start of the Great

The war brought motivation and drive to mobilize the nation and produce materials. As many men, and even some women, drafted into the military, more jobs became available. Overall, several factors, notably the wealth gap and post-World War I downturns caused economic instability in the United States in the 1920s. Throughout the Gilded Age, there was a growing distance between the rich and the poor. Jacob Riis attempted to limit this gap by exposing the rich to the plight of the less fortunate in his piece How the Other Half Lives. However, by the 1920s, the divide had reached an all time high. In Document 5, W. E. B. Du Bois, an African American activist, discusses this divide. In his closing sentence, he says that prosperity and depression exist simultaneously in the United States. From W. E. B. Du Bois’s stance, the division between the wealthy, living in prosperity, and the working class adds to economic instability in the United States. Efforts were made to close the gap, but most favored the wealthy. One example of this is the Mellon Tax Plan of 1924 (Document 1). As Secretary of the Treasury

Filled with prosperity and growth, everyone thought the twenties were the start of a great run for the United States. Dr. Dice, a business professor at Ohio State University, predicted that the stock market would continue to gain in the near future, more than ever before (Document 6). But, he went on to say that it would eventually collapse. Not only did he know that it cannot continue to grow forever, but he realized that small investors have begun to take part in the game of stock. He saw that such investors would add to the vulnerability of the market. His purpose being to warn the American people of his fears, Dice expressess his concern for the inevitable fall in economic prosperity. Several other economists had similar theories, including Roger Babson of Gloucester. About one month before the crash, Babson warned a National Business Conference in Massachusetts of his worries. He informed them that the stock market was far more inflated compared to the predicted levels in the future. To review, several business analysts and financial experts sensed an imminent crash, but these warnings were disregarded, at least until it was too