re: #152 sattv4u2

The politics might have been “no worse” during the Gilded Age, but living & working conditions for many Americans were.

There was no FDA to protect & regulate things like food safety, medicine, sanitation, etc. There were no child labor laws or really ANY kind of labor laws to protect workers from horrors like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. There was no EPA, no National Parks Service, and no Social Security or Medicare for the elderly. If you were poor or disabled you were pretty much dependent on the kindness & charity of strangers. Jim Crow laws were in effect and women didn’t have the right to vote. The list goes on and on…