History Wealth and Inequality terms

Gilded Age

Late 1800s to Early 1900s - time of large increase in wealth caused by industrialization

Individualism

a social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control

Laissez-faire

Idea that government should play as small a role as possible in economic affairs

Social Darwinism

The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle

Corporation

A business owned by stockholders who share in its profits but are not personally responsible for its debts

Vertical integration

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution

Horizontal integration

Type of monopoly where a company buys out all of its competition

Andrew Carnegie - US steel

1873 opened steelworks and soon dominated industry. Used stock to finance and created US Steel Corp ($14 billion enterprise controlling almost 2/3 of nation's steel production)

John D. Rockefeller - Standard Oil

By 1880s, established great dominance within petroleum industry that he was the leading symbol of monopoly to nation

The Progressive Era

time at the turn of the 20th century in which groups sought to reform America economically, socially, and politically

Examples of progressive reform

Booker T. Washington

African American progressive who supported segregation and demanded that African American better themselves individually to achieve equality.

W.E.B. DuBois

Wanted social and political integration, founder of the Niagara Movement which led to the creation of the NAACP.

Great Migration

movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920

Harlem Renaissance

A period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished

Assembly line

Production method that breaks down a complex job into a series of smaller tasks

Scientific Management

a management theory using efficiency experts to examine each work operations and find ways to minimize the time needed to complete it

Installment buying

A consumers buys products by promising to pay small, regular amounts over a period of time

Growth of auto industry

Americans were on the move, car manufacturers kept people buying by updating styles every year, cars became a dispensable way of life

Problems facing farmers

low prices for crops, high transportation, equipment, and loan costs, drought, reduced influence in politics

"Buying on margin"

paying a small percentage of a stock's price as a down payment and borrowing the rest

Great Depression

the economic crisis beginning with the stock market crash in 1929 and continuing through the 1930s

Bank runs

People were running to banks to take their money out before the bank collapsed

What was the New Deal?

A collection of reforms intended to restart economic growth in the Depression-era United States

What were the goals of the New Deal?

provide relief, recovery, and reform

Bank holiday

closed all banks until gov. examiners could investigate their financial condition; only sound/solvent banks were allowed to reopen

FDIC

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: a federally sponsored corporation that insures accounts in national banks and other qualified institutions ($250,000)

SEC

Securities and Exchange Commission

Social Security

federal program of disability and retirement benefits that covers most working people