Robber Barons: The Destruction Of The American Dream

The American dream is something everyone knows and strives for. However, not all can achieve this dream just by accidentally finding gold in a stream. Two different classes such as the wealthy and the poor can create many issues. Just as James Baldwin said in his 1985 essay called “The American Dream and the American Negro,” “Unless we can establish some type of dialogue between those people who enjoy the American dream and those who have not achieved it, we will be in terrible trouble,” there will be consequences if the wealthy still causes trouble for the poor. Unfortunately, even though it is the twenty-first century, we have not avoided this “terrible trouble” due to powerful and wealthy Americans and their privileges that still exist

today.
America has had a long history of wealthy people that abuse their power over the less fortunate.

Dating back all the way to the Industrial Revolution, America has been filled with “robber barons” such as Andrew Carnegie. “Robber barons” refer to industrialists that become wealthy through the hard work of their workers. Carnegie forced his workers into working long hours in terrible conditions just so he can get the most profit from his steel factory. For this reason, Carnegie’s workers decided to perform a strike which turned into the Homestead Massacre. The Homestead Massacre’s aftermath turned out to be forty workers wounded and nine workers killed. This event relates to our modern world because we still have major corporations acting in a similar way of these robber barons from the 1800’s. We have the Apple Company founded by Steve Jobs that revolutionized cell phone use in the world. Apple still uses a mechanism that can be described as “slave-like” in which workers are forced to work long hours with little income. Even though this Apple factory is in Shanghai, it is still a case of an American corporation taking advantage of the needs of the poor by making them work long hours for the benefit of the wealthy. We will not be able to avoid the consequences that James Baldwin predicted if the rich keeps on exploiting the poor for their own

profit.
There will be people that will say that if the poor just work hard enough, they will be up to par with the wealthy and not have to suffer or be exploited by the rich. The problem with that is that, not all wealthy people worked for their privilege or class. Some people out there have worked hard their entire lives just to feed their families on sixteen hour shifts a day and they are still not living like the Kardashians. Most of time, the lower class stay where they are because of society’s standards of skin color, religion, or sexuality. Here in America, there are those who are born into the American dream with no hard work or effort. Hard Work does not always result in being wealthy and privileged.
We have not avoided the turmoil that we are already getting into because of powerful Americans that abuse their power and privilege. America has suffered from wealthy robber barons in the past and we are still suffering from them today. Also, the fact that there are wealthy people who were born into their position and not by hard work greatly affects our society in a way that the poor will stay in their place. It is no secret that the wealthy has many advantages and has less troubles than the poor. As long as the wealthy leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths, then we have not solved this “terrible trouble” yet.