How The US Rockefeller Rise During The Gilded Age

People’s actions and morals can determine whether they’re a “good” or “bad” person, however, it’s usually more complicated than that. During the Gilded Age, America experienced rapid and impressive growth in its economy with wealth, gross domestic product, and capital formation. The U.S. also became the leading industrial nation, building a powerful navy and fostering monumental technological innovation. However, along with many achievements and advancements, equally powerful problems arose. The late nineteenth century had many issues with gross materialism and political corruption, which could be expected, considering the little influence the government had over the rapidly growing country. Many people took advantage of this combination of a small government and a rapidly growing economy, two even becoming

Not long after his first company took off, in 1870, he created Standard Oil Co., which was a combination of a few of the other businesses he had started. Rockefeller used refineries to extract oil, rather than some of his competitors who preferred to use oil rigs. What truly helped Rockefeller rise above his competitors was actually undercutting their prices, and even offering money to railroad companies to only ship materials to him, which caused his competitors’ businesses to go bankrupt. He used a business tactic called the trust, where he took shares in other companies, offering the owners a place on the board of directors and dividends in the company. This tactic gave Rockefeller more control over his competitors’ businesses, which affected everyone else negatively. Not only did he reach his wealth in unethical manners, but he treated his workers as disposable. Miners and other employees worked eleven to twelve hours a day and received no vacations or paid holidays. At one point, Rockefeller owned over 50% of the oil supply and trade, which is considered a monopoly, which was and still is