Robber Barons In The Gilded Age

Benjamin Franklin once said “ He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.” (Lifehack Quotes, P.1) This era of becoming “money hungry” began in the Gilded Age which occurred around 1877-1917. The industrialists of the 19th/20th century were Robber Barons who used questionable practices to acquire their wealth. Andrew Carnegie, The Vanderbilt family, JP Morgan, and John D Rockefeller were all Robber Barons because they only donated money to make themselves look better, they took advantage of their workers, and exploited other business companies. To put it in more honest terms, the “fortune” these Business Tycoons “made” is technically coming from their hard working, barely paid workers

They made them work long nonsensical hours the average human being can withstand, paid them wages lower than the minimum wage at McDonald's, and abused their employees. For example, take JP Morgan who increased working hours and workplace fatalities keeping his wage at an all time low (history.co.uk). Morgan made his employees work so much that they started demanding laws to limit the workday to eight hours. Morgan’s wage was so low that the average worker barely earned a dollar a day. J.P. Morgan did not treat workers well and was the main cause of falling wages and not caring for the health and safety of the workforces of his companies, especially steelworkers and miners, who died while working at his facilities ( history.co.uk, P.1) Andrew Carnegie pushed his employees to work long, exhausting hours and put his support behind the plant manager Henry Frick who treated his workers atrociously. Henry even locked out workers and also hired pinkerton thugs to intimidate strikers. The working conditions in Carnegie's mill were so dangerous that twenty percent of deaths in Pittsburgh during the 1880’s were because of steelwork accidents. Andrew Carnegie did not play when it came to his wage. At one point, Carnegie lowered his wage by thirty percent which lead to a strike. What’s funny about this is Andrew Carnegie was always fighting for laborers and was always trying to protect their rights but little did we know he was violating his own rules. Interesting. Cornelius Vanderbilt mistreated his workers and assigned them long hours(faqla.com, P.1). This is not a shocker to most people since Cornelius Vanderbilt was known to be a ruthless character who was very greedy, arrogant, and basically abused everyone. “Cornelius Vanderbilt made a fortune off the sweat of immigrant labor and by monopolizing pretty much all travel east of chicago.” (Shannon Donnelly, P.1) What is surprising is that John D Rockefeller