Following this situation, the Progressive decided that their main goal was to change the state of the Americans, through helping the common man especially laborers and offering the growth in the American industry. The Progressives representatives tried the …show more content…
The American Society was in need of social goods redistribution now that laborers working for long hours received very low wages and they were not in a position to keep their families alive (Zinn 257). This way, citizens were forced to spend all their time at work while they got low wages, while on the other hand, their employers were enjoying very good profits as they became richer and improved their lives.
In the Progressive Era and the Gilded age, even those that were considered as being weekends were canceled and the laborers received up to eighty hours per week. The working conditions were so bad that many people lost their lives for different reasons including fires (Loewen 205). This shows that the Progressive Era was an era of many tragedies now that people had to survive and had limited or no options of choosing their working places.
At the same time, the governments were corrupted in almost all sectors with bribes always used as a means of settling issues during the Gilded Age. Corruption was a dominant thing at the Legislature, the ballot box, the ermine of the bench, and the Congress hence the government was in no position to offer direct functions in protecting citizens and working for their prosperity and