Do you know who the “Robber Barons” are? They were people like John D. Rockefeller,Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and John Pierpont Morgan. The real question was if they really were “Captains of Industry” or “Robber Barons.” “A ROBBER BARON, by definition, was an American capitalist at the turn of the 19th century who enriched himself upon the sweat of others, exploited natural resources, or possessed unfair government influence.” - Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia. Unlike Morgan, Rockefeller and Carnegie were not born into wealth. Morgan was born into wealth. Morgan’s father had a name already for him in the banking industry. But the main question of all this… Were they helpful or not. I personally think …show more content…
I think it had a good effect on America and industrialization. They promoted industrial and agricultural development. High tariffs were enacted to protect American industry from foreign countries. A tariff is a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports. With the federal government placing these high tariffs, it protected our stuff. If those tariffs weren’t placed, then China or some other foreign country could get exported goods from America and they could start industrialization. With the federal government promoting industrialization and agricultural development, this could speed up industrialization and we could make more goods and stuff. I really think federal government helped a lot to protect what was …show more content…
That helped a lot with working conditions. Working conditions were really bad during industrialization. Labor unions formed to help clean those conditions up. Most of the time, the bad conditions were no fire exits, low hygiene, and long work hours. There were no laws stating a person could only work a maximum of some hours each week or day. Most times, bosses would have their workers work all day long. I know one thing, I could not do that. Most people were desperate for money and would stay though. Let’s use the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory for example. The doors were always locked, there was only one or two bathrooms, they worked from 8 in the morning to 8 at night, and in case of fires there were only buckets of water in each corner of the room. I don’t think four buckets of water will put out a material fire. You’re inhuman if you think those working conditions are okay. That is very dangerous. That is why labor unions were formed. They tried to get laws and make conditions safer in factories. They too thought it was inhuman to treat people like that. Labor unions made a big change by making people’s lives safer. You’re pretty dumb if you think that labor unions didn’t help because they definitely made lives