Andrew Carnegie has Horatio Alger tied up in his basement. Occasionally he beats the crap out of him just for kicks.

The Gilded Age was a time of massive industrialization. The American lifestyle became one of consumerism, fueled by a middle glass growing like a magical sponge dinosaur. The water was provided by the lower end of society, the workers whose plight made men like Marx wake up in cold sweats. Sheer exploitation is what it looks like today, but not then. It makes perfect sense when you put the puzzle pieces together.

Unions were not permitted in the United States at this time in history. The government believed that if a job was treating you poorly, you can quit and get a better one somewhere else. In theory, if enough people quit the factory to slow production, the company would have to raise worker benefits in order to fill those slots.

The only problem was that supply and demand played a queer role in this ideal system. This work in the factory required little to no special skill, so anyone could do it, even the newcomers.

Immigration into the United States was getting pretty serious, nine million people in the 1890s, that is about a seventh of the population at the time. With all this ample work, if anyone quit their post it would be filled by someone else without employers thinking twice. This supply of workers and their dependence on this system only allowed conditions to deteriorate. Companies could push the envelope very safely, as long as no union existed. If the working class was much much tinier, results could have been completely different.

They were not different, workers did suffer from this libertarian outlook. Until next time kids, ponder the glorious beginnings of the political career of Eugene V Debs.