American Citizenship and Unregulated Capitalism: A Historical Perspective

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The ideal of American citizenship was not only if you were legal in America, but the ideal that you have the values and rights of a citizen. Unregulated capitalism and the ultimate change in government regulations in big business led to a change in the ideal of citizenship. With the start of big business in America the theory of unregulated capitalism was tested for the first time. In this paper I will discuss the ideal of what a citizen was before the great depression with unregulated capitalism, and the changing from no regulations to some, and the after effect this had. When big business in America first started in came in big factories, such as woolen mills, and steel mills, and auto plants. The average American was defined heavily by …show more content…

During the years before the great depression life was good for the average American, they had a job a family and a purpose. They were a normal citizens. During this time citizenship was defined by “those who love America with open eyes” This idea was centered on WWI along with patriotism, as long as you loved this country and disowned the enemies and renounced your citizenship to you home country if an immigrant you were an American. This can be shown in big business the Ford Motor company even went as far as to make a “sociological department entered homes of immigrant workers to evaluate their clothing, furniture, and food preferences and enrolled them in English-language courses.” They were also referred to as “ford’s police” They wanted to do this to keep up …show more content…

The average American citizen was accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and this was part of what it meant to be a citizens. “… it is obvious that Americans have come to consider their standard of living as a somewhat sacred acquisition, which they will defend at any price.” Many immigrants came to the U.S. to live the American Dream, and when the stock market crashed the ideal that their way of life could be comprised was terrible. This is when we start to see a want for government regulations. At first the economic downturn was just “…a normal part of capitalism” Hover responded with the ideal of government involvement in business as “That is: shall we depart from the principles of our American political and economic system, upon which we have advanced beyond all the rest of the world, in order to adopt methods based on principles destructive of its very foundations?” Hover believed that the American people would pull through this period of economic trouble. But it became evident as the time passed to the American people something needed to happen. Their whole ideal of citizenship has changed. More people were moving away from working in big business to work on farms just so their family could eat. This was the start of the Great Depression. At first Hover called upon big businesses to self-regulate in hopes to help stabilize the economy. With support from

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