some workers only earned $5 a week. The Homestead Act in 1892 was between the “Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers” and the “Carnegie Steel Company”. It resulted in that the strikers were defeated and a major setback in the unionization of the steel workers.

Even in today’s age, monopolies and big businesses can affect workers really harsh. If businesses spread out really big, they do not leave workers large opportunities for different jobs because they are in charge by themselves for this entire category. There is no competition anymore left. Monopoly and Monopsony are closely related. Easier explained: Monopolies are the only seller, and monopsonies are the only buyer. Like the independent journalist, contributing as a writer for the “New York Times” and also the “New Public”, Bryce Covert states: “Monopoly power allows a company that has eaten up an entire industry to fix prices for consumers, driving them higher than they would be if other companies were able to compete in the same market and offer lower prices.” (Covert, 1). If there are no competitions between businesses and industries, one single company can rule their wages, prices etc. all by themselves. And if there actually is a smaller company in the same place, the monopoly can destroy the little business by setting their own prices as low as possible, so all the customers will go to their shop, and so the small business will go broke.

The scary thing is, that some companies do not seem like a monopoly at the very beginning, because nobody was paying attention while there were growing their monopoly power. For instance, “Amazon does not, in some respects, look like a monopoly” (Meyer, 3). Three years ago, in 2015, Amazon had less worth than Walmart, but today it is almost three times more worth than the “big-box-king” (Meyer, 3). A quick statistic: Around 44 cents of every single dollar which an American is spending online, goes to Amazon. Not even close, but the next biggest online retailer is eBay, with only six cents of every dollar.

Even when the conditions were different back then, the problems and issues are still pretty similar. Jobs and politics back then in the Gilded Age were different than today. Back then in the Gilded Age, most of the employees do not have to have a high degree or at least the requirement were not as strict as today. Today in order to obtain a really good job, job seekers need to obtain a bachelor or a master’s degree with in a field. The minimum wage in the United States, set by the US labor law and a range of state and local laws, is $7.25 per hour. And if an employee does not want to work in a certain industry, they still can change their job by learning something different. Education is much easier in the current time age than back then.

However, monopolies still affect the workers. Probably not as the same way back then, but still in their selling prices (and so, also if they can increase their wages, or leave it on the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour) and how they manipulate other businesses and their employees to increase their profit margins. “Monopoly power allows a company that has eaten up an entire industry to fix prices for consumers, driving them higher than they would be if other companies were able to compete in the same market and offer lower prices.” (Covert, 3). In the Gilded Age, the monopolies like