The ideas of Social Darwinism and Socialism were first theorized by those in the age of industrialization, when the gap between the social classes was continuing to grow. SocialDarwinism is a philosophy that was taken off of the theory of Darwinism in two aspectsthat were applied to society. One, survival of the fittest. Those who succeeded in lifewere the ones who were fit, in addition, those who failed were left to be weeded out,Secondly, the idea of natural selection as applied to society. Social Darwinism in ourcapitalist society compares wealth with fitness, but historically, these unregulatedmarkets are not truly beneficial to both social classes, as there are always those who ownless wealth or are physically or mentally handicapped. The Darwinistic economic ideawas most ideal for those already possessing much wealth. Social Darwinism was alsomost popular with the wealthy social class because it gave industrialists a way to justifythe huge gap between rich and poor. It was a fabrication to go along with the idea thatthose who work the hardest in life succeed, while deceivingly the wealthy were able tospend their time in leisure, forcing the poor to do their work for them. Laissez-Faire, was the approach the industrialists wanted the government toundergo. Going along with the idea that the government was not to interfere with the freeenterprise, capitalistic way of America, the government left the economy unregulated,keeping a hands-off method. This is how those who were wealthy wanted the poor tobelieve. They deceivingly told them that they were personally responsible for theirsuccess and individualism. With these ulterior motives by the wealthy, the poor had nochoice in how to accomplish their success and were forced to work in the poor conditionsof the industry. Evidently, the economy suffered from lack of economic opportunity forthe poor, sanitary building codes, and welfare from the government. The failures wereincreasing...
