Social Darwinism Dbq

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SAQ #1 One governmental practice during this era was siding with and supporting corporations in most issues. For example, the creation of the ICC was done with intent to regulate economic activity, but its structure only allowed action to be taken in court, where corporations almost always won. This caused growing animosity between farmers and railroad corporations, because farmers felt they were still being cheated. The idea of “social darwinism” contributed to the battle between labor and management, because it claimed that those who were meant to succeed would, and those unfit for the competitive world would fail. This popularized a new definition of freedom in which “the law of contract” was priority and that it would be detrimental for …show more content…

THis is supported by the idea of “social darwinism” which essentially stated that the weak would not succeed in nature and this was a good thing because it caused evolution and this was applicable to the economy as well. This is significant, because this justification was cited by many others, including the government in laws regarding regulation of labor. The main point of the 2nd passage is that the divide between classes is growing wider--as the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. The theory called conspicuous consumption states the wealthy spend money on frivolous things only to display their wealth, which is in contrast to those barely able to sustain their families paycheck to paycheck. THis would create not only economic disparity, but social animosity between the rich and poor. The idea of “the laws of contract” was central to the idea of social darwinism stated by Rockefeller, These “laws” claimed that anyone could work as much or as little as they wanted and had total control of this, but so did their employers. THis caused the government to avoid getting any sort of regulation in the workplace so as to avoid interfering with anyone’s choice, mostly the choice of the employer to set long hours for low pay in high risk