How did the poor feel in the Gilded Age?
The poor felt abused and forgotten throughout the Gilded Age. There were few labor unions and strikes were fairly unsuccessful at improving working conditions and wages. Tycoons like J.P. Morgan and Rockefeller were notorious for exploiting poor workers. If that wasn’t enough, city life was impacted and ghetto-like. No cities were adequately prepared to manage trash collection or even have a proper sewage system, and the pro-business Gilded Age government often looked the other way while the poor suffered. There was a popular sentiment that poor people were lazy, therefore they deserved the conditions in which they lived.
