Since the end of the Civil War, the relationship between business and government in America has drastically changed. Before the Civil War, American economy was split between several small towns and local businesses, but the period shortly after saw an explosion of interest and investment in industrial processes (Steiner & Steiner, 2011). The rapid growth of industry saw several social problems arise, such as slum populations, child labor and fraud amongst big businesses. One of the first populist movements was a group of farmers who saw the rise of big business as a threat and wanted to move America back to a farming nation, but after industrialization took hold this would have been impossible. The Progressives were a movement that started later, in 1900, who understood some of the problems from big business and industry and made several improvements in working conditions for employees. They also “restricted child labor, passed a corporate income tax, and regulated food and drug companies and public utilities” (Steiner & Steiner, 2011, p95).
Later political movements included the socialists, who worked on the writings of Marx and Engels and wanted to redistribute wealth more evenly. This group saw big business as a problem as it was the very embodiment of capitalism, which is the antithesis of socialist movements (Steiner & Steiner, 2011). One of the biggest changes that socialism brought to the United States was the unions, who wanted to protect the rights of the new group of “employed”. One of these was known as the Knights of Labor, who recognized the exploitation of labor for capital, although their ideas were more “to protect labor rather than for overthrow of the capitalists” (Steiner & Steiner, 2011, p98). After some rights were sketched out and there had been violent strikes on the railroads, many people in the United States began to see big business as an employer and as a good thing for the economy (Steiner & Steiner, 2011).
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Unfortunately, the stock market crash of 1929 affected many people in the U.S. and with this crash trust in business abruptly fell. Governments were called upon to try and regulate businesses who were blamed for the crash, particularly because of their unregulated capitalism (Bower, 1983). Populist thinking, which was created to protect the interests of the people, began to reemerge and there were movements that called for regulation of business as well as a fairer redistribution of wealth (Mack, 1997). Whilst the more radical of these movements failed to have any impact on the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal did have some effect on taxation and business to try and combat the negative effects of the crash (Steiner & Steiner, 2011, p100).
Shortly after the crash, the Second World War efforts had people beginning to have more confidence in big business and there was a nationalist spirit. General Motors stopped making cars and moved almost entirely to production that helped the war effort, making it more appealing to the population and also strengthening its relationship to the Government (Steiner & Steiner, 2011). The 1960s, however, saw an increase in social movements which were essentially a mixture of socialism and populist movements. Governments were called upon to ensure the safety of the people and provide better working conditions and better wages, amongst other things (Mack, 1997). People during this era had extremely low confidence in big business, and this has continued to drop until the present day. The New Progressives were a movement that grew out of this distrust, but unfortunately their emergency split the vote between the Democrats and themselves allowing the pro-business George W. Bush to win the election (Mack, 1997).
These changes have all affected society. Evidently the actions of businesses during the time of the stock market crash in 1929 had an effect on the economy, which affected everyone. Additionally, society over time has become more socially liberal and understand that society needs to protect its citizens in order to work, which is reflected in the recurring themes of populism and progressive movements in the U.S. (Steiner & Steiner, 2011). Unfortunately, George W. Bush is extremely pro-business and pro-capitalism and during his time in office some of the movements to redistribute wealth away from big business and back into society were restricted, which again had an effect on society by reinforcing the old idea of the American Dream (Samuelson, 2011).
Over time, the majority of these changes have been beneficial to the American people. Any movement that made a change to make working conditions better and to improve the relationship between businesses and their community are positive (Steiner & Steiner, 2011). Anything that protects the rights of both women and minority in business is also beneficial to a society, which many of these more progressive movements have done (Steiner & Steiner, 2011). The changes also brought about shorter working conditions and a reduction in child labor, which is obviously a good thing. Unfortunately, some of the changes made by governments to protect big business have not been so beneficial. Unregulated capitalism can lead to effects such as those seen in the stock market crash in 1929 and the global recession in 2008, which affect not only business but the population (Steiner & Steiner, 2011).
