By Brooklynn Then, age 11
Amazon’s treatment of workers today is comparable to exploitation during the Gilded Age, argues Monika Jus in Medium. Well, what was the Gilded Age?
The Gilded Age was an era spanning from the late 1800s to early 1900s. It was a period of rapid industrialization, creating a lot of wealth for some, while others were impoverished and exploited. The challenges that the working poor faced during this time period were extreme poverty, homelessness, and intense child labor. In fact, between 1890 and 1910, 18% of children aged 10-15 worked, according to Business Insider.
On the other hand, there were wealthy people like Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt, who controlled entire industries like steel, banking, oil, and railroad, and created monopolies, which is when one person or country has exclusive control of a whole business.
The gap in income between the rich and poor was especially apparent when, by 1890, the top 1% of households owned a quarter of the nation’s assets, leaving the majority with little wealth. Workers faced exhausting conditions: 12-hour workdays, six days a week, with wages as low as $1–$2 a day. Urban poverty was so severe that hunger and homelessness were widespread, with workers unable to afford basic necessities, writes Jus.
There are definitely similarities between now and the Gilded Age. The extremely wealthy build multiple houses, and even mansions, while those in poverty usually live in intensely cramped spaces or end up homeless. In terms of modern-day monopolies, Meta, Amazon, and Google could fit under this category.
The working conditions today also compare to those of the Gilded Age, though there are many more legal workers’ protections now. But warehouse employees at places like Amazon face intense conditions, often reporting injuries, exhaustion, and minimal breaks.
Medium states that today the combined net worth of the top five richest Americans reached $840 billion in 2024. “CEO-to-worker pay ratios have soared, with executives earning over 300 times the typical worker’s salary in 2023, compared to 20 times in the 1960s and roughly 100 times during the Gilded Age,” writes Jus.
A specific example of the modern Gilded Era dynamic is how President Trump is building a $400 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom in the White House, according to The Washington Post. It is described as very dramatic, embellished extremely with gold and gilded elements.
Trump is building this ballroom to showcase his wealth and power on top of his presidential status. Historically, the political purpose of huge, fancy spaces like ballrooms were to display signs of extreme wealth, and also to assert power, according to Business Insider.
The AI tech boom contributes to this modern Gilded Age, and it’s already started to bring us consequences. AI relies on data centers, which use a lot of water, sometimes causing communities where they are built to lose their access to water, according to Forbes. Companies like Meta, Amazon, and Google all contribute to this negative environmental impact, especially because of using AI.
With all this, it seems that the inequality of the Gilded Age might seem more familiar now than ever. But this is not entirely hopeless. We can do something about it, like bringing awareness to this topic to expose the unchecked power of modern-day monopolies.
