Effects of Growth of Industry in Modern America

The growth of industry and businesses in the United States of America occurred by the monopolization of the American market. Over time some firms grew large enough to control as much as 25% of their industry like United Steel. Such big companies would lead to greater jobs plus greater economies of scale, being able to produce at lower costs and so theoretically could sell their products at a lower price. Therefore, most would say that this growth was beneficial for American society and has led to the ‘American Dream’ ideals associated with USA. However, there are benefits and costs to everything. Similarly, there were incredible costs from which these benefits were founded. Therefore, I think the growth of business and the corporate state has been primarily detrimental for the American nation. To elaborate, many of these only came after Government regulation. For instance, better and fair working conditions came only after instances such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory incident in 1911, Roosevelt’s legislation post late 1920’s Depression the Civil and Woman’s right’s movements.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory epitomized all the terrible working conditions of laborers in the early 20th Century. It was a nine storied brick building – known to be fireproof - with the factory located on the top three stories. There was no ventilation except for the open space in the center, as there were no windows; during the winter months only the sewers could move and sit by the boilers. On top of this no clean water was available. The women at the time only earned $6 a day and so buying 2 cent pop to keep them hydrated throughout the day was quite a penny-pincher. It was only after the fire killing most of the seven hundred laborers did the city realize that a lot of changes would have to occur. The city itself couldn’t keep up with the growth of all industry. Many of these workers lived in ghettoes with no heating, windows, lighting or proper sanitation even. Therefore the...