ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the social order,

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like french fries to share with the table.

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All right, first up - the excerpt.

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All right, labor of human beings not a commodity...

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Blah blah blah blah blah... [ mumbles ] Clayton Antitrust.

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All right, and now the question:

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How did the rise of corporations affect the social order of the time?

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And here are the potential answers.

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[ ding ]

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What exactly is this question asking?

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Well, we know that the growth of corporations led to

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an increase of cheap goods available for consumers.

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That's a good thing, right? And with more goods out there,

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consumers spent more and more money, which meant that

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corporations could keep making the goods.

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That's quite the feedback loop. So we need to figure out

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which answer best describes what kind of an impact this

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business model was having on society as a whole.

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Did the rise of corporations affect the social order because

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A - it led to greater income equality between

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employers and employees?

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Well, actually, this time period saw a growth in income inequality.

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Corporations were making increasingly more money, but wages

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were staying relatively stagnant. So it's not A.

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Did the growth of corporations B - decrease the overall demand for labor?

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Hmm. With consumer demand soaring, corporations needed

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tons of new employees for low-skilled jobs, most of which

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were doing things like pushing a button

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over and over and over and over again for 12 hours.

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That meant Americans wouldn't need a higher education

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to obtain this kind of work either, so we can eliminate B and C.

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Which means that the rise of corporations affected the social order because D -

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it provided women and migrants greater economic freedom.

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Because these new jobs didn't require a lot of education and experience,

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women and migrants were finally able to join the workforce.

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So the correct answer is D. Now, although the jobs were often

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dangerous and sometimes exploitive,

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women still enjoyed greater economic opportunities than before.

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So it looks like you really can put a price on freedom.

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Probably about ten cents an hour.

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[ bird call ]

Full Transcript