The Practice Of Patronage In The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age was a period of extreme wealth inequality, similar to society in 1984. During the Gilded Age, the practice of patronage was commonly used for appointing jobs to friends and supporters for their loyalty regardless of their qualifications. Businessmen and politicians often provided work for those they favored, rather than families in desperate need. “One of the things we have to understand about the Gilded Age is that the number of individuals who become employees, who become dependent on paychecks, increases dramatically.” As noted, the upper class of wealthy held persistent control over the poor lower class whose survival was in constant jeopardy. A statistic stated in a Gilded Age documentary is that the richest 4,000 families in the United States (representing less than 1% of the population) …show more content…
Surveillance and Loss of Privacy Arguably one of the Party's biggest forms of intimidation is their distributed telescreens. The telescreens are placed in every home and constantly watch and listen to those around them, excluding the proletariats in the slums. “The telescreen is received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.” Junior Spies were another mechanism the Party used against its citizens to maintain loyalty. Children were influenced by the Party to spy on their parents and report them for any slightly rebellious behavior. “Nearly all children nowadays are horrible. What was the worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatsoever to rebel against the discipline of the