Laissez Faire and The United States
The Laissez-Faire style of government isn't completely gone.
Over the past few days, This particular word has been popping into my head from time to time. "Laissez Faire" or "hands off" is basically when a government cares little for how businesses and companies treat their employees, and how towns treat their citizens. Back in the 1800s and the early 1900s, there were a lot of questionable things people were doing to gain wealth.
Outlaw? What Does That Mean?
One aspect of the United States that has supposedly been outlawed since the country's change of heart is Trusts. Trusts are basically when companies combine to create a corporation, they make their prices dirt cheap in order to run unassociated companies out of business. When there's no more competition left, they raise their prices to ridiculous amounts so they can make the highest possible profit. Now lets fast forward to today and apply that to an essential part of your home. Let's say for example your house's electricity. This is only speculation but, if the electricity providers for your area either A. Find a way to jack up the prices, (like if the price the fuels used to produce electricity went up) they could potentially make to pay $800 minimum or B. Just decided to up and leave, then you have a choice; have fun in the dark or have fun working to pay the $999.99 electric bill every month, the choice is yours.
We'd Never Do That Our Citizens
When you think about it, the Lassez Faire system didn't impact just the prices of products, it also affected people directly, want an example? Look no further than Tenaments, they were hovels where the lower class citizens and immigrants stayed in and they were dreadful.
They were poorly constructed, cramped, dirty and hot (or cold depending on the season) but to be honest this isn't very different from how animals are kept today.
I'm not very familiar with animal rights, nor am I saying that animals should have two-story houses with air conditioning and televisions. It's just that a living space that we humans view as unsanitary, congested, and even cruel is the exact same position we've put animals into. The worst part is, no one seems to care.
Social Darwinism Lives On (Unfortunately)
Going back to whole trust ordeal, a problem that hasn't really been touched on in the U.S. is the low wages for employees from the early 1900s and it's actually impacting us now. Granted there's technically a minimum wage, but it varies from state to state. But the bigger problem here is that families who were poor from the days of the trusts back in the 1900s could still be poor now, and it isn't entirely their fault either.
It's almost like Social Darwinism still exists but in a more cryptic form. If a poor person doesn't get a scholarship or their parents don't have any money when they graduate from high school, they're going to end up in the same place as their parents, and their grandparents. It's really unfair that some poor people that deserve a chance don't even get one, while on the other hand, the dumb rich people who just inherit money from their families don't even have to worry about a scholarship if their business just runs itself. "Life's Not Fair?" More like, "The Government Doesn't Care".
Overall the U.S. has improved a lot since the 1900s like child labor being outlawed, but the problems aren't being solved, they've just been "masked" for the time being. Through exploits and loopholes in our laws, the more devious crowd will still be able to succeed. We've improved drastically, and I'm sure that we'll continue to improve, but the sentiment that "history repeats itself" makes it seem like Laissez-Faire isn't done with American society yet.
Citations
Information
Electricity:
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_factors_affecting_prices
Tenaments:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12G2Uo5QXgieg-WWQ54KHe0kaNbL7djf16XwtycY29SA/edit#slide=id.g253cca6918_0_79
Pictures
Tenements:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/178595941445992183/
https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Jacob_August_Riis
Pig Pens:
https://lonelyspore.com/tag/food-industry/
Social Darwinism:
https://2408blog.wordpress.com/tag/oligarchy/
Over the past few days, This particular word has been popping into my head from time to time. "Laissez Faire" or "hands off" is basically when a government cares little for how businesses and companies treat their employees, and how towns treat their citizens. Back in the 1800s and the early 1900s, there were a lot of questionable things people were doing to gain wealth.
Outlaw? What Does That Mean?
One aspect of the United States that has supposedly been outlawed since the country's change of heart is Trusts. Trusts are basically when companies combine to create a corporation, they make their prices dirt cheap in order to run unassociated companies out of business. When there's no more competition left, they raise their prices to ridiculous amounts so they can make the highest possible profit. Now lets fast forward to today and apply that to an essential part of your home. Let's say for example your house's electricity. This is only speculation but, if the electricity providers for your area either A. Find a way to jack up the prices, (like if the price the fuels used to produce electricity went up) they could potentially make to pay $800 minimum or B. Just decided to up and leave, then you have a choice; have fun in the dark or have fun working to pay the $999.99 electric bill every month, the choice is yours.
We'd Never Do That Our Citizens
When you think about it, the Lassez Faire system didn't impact just the prices of products, it also affected people directly, want an example? Look no further than Tenaments, they were hovels where the lower class citizens and immigrants stayed in and they were dreadful.
They were poorly constructed, cramped, dirty and hot (or cold depending on the season) but to be honest this isn't very different from how animals are kept today.
I'm not very familiar with animal rights, nor am I saying that animals should have two-story houses with air conditioning and televisions. It's just that a living space that we humans view as unsanitary, congested, and even cruel is the exact same position we've put animals into. The worst part is, no one seems to care.
Social Darwinism Lives On (Unfortunately)
Going back to whole trust ordeal, a problem that hasn't really been touched on in the U.S. is the low wages for employees from the early 1900s and it's actually impacting us now. Granted there's technically a minimum wage, but it varies from state to state. But the bigger problem here is that families who were poor from the days of the trusts back in the 1900s could still be poor now, and it isn't entirely their fault either.
It's almost like Social Darwinism still exists but in a more cryptic form. If a poor person doesn't get a scholarship or their parents don't have any money when they graduate from high school, they're going to end up in the same place as their parents, and their grandparents. It's really unfair that some poor people that deserve a chance don't even get one, while on the other hand, the dumb rich people who just inherit money from their families don't even have to worry about a scholarship if their business just runs itself. "Life's Not Fair?" More like, "The Government Doesn't Care".
Overall the U.S. has improved a lot since the 1900s like child labor being outlawed, but the problems aren't being solved, they've just been "masked" for the time being. Through exploits and loopholes in our laws, the more devious crowd will still be able to succeed. We've improved drastically, and I'm sure that we'll continue to improve, but the sentiment that "history repeats itself" makes it seem like Laissez-Faire isn't done with American society yet.
Citations
Information
Electricity:
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_factors_affecting_prices
Tenaments:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12G2Uo5QXgieg-WWQ54KHe0kaNbL7djf16XwtycY29SA/edit#slide=id.g253cca6918_0_79
Pictures
Tenements:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/178595941445992183/
https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Jacob_August_Riis
Pig Pens:
https://lonelyspore.com/tag/food-industry/
Social Darwinism:
https://2408blog.wordpress.com/tag/oligarchy/
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