Why did industrial leaders promote the theory of social Darwinism?

Answer 1

Social Darwinism is the idea of fitting or adapting to your surroundings.

It was used during the American Industrial Revolution because of things such as monopolies. Monopolies were when everyone was trying to create a business out of a larger business. Such as taking over smaller ones . By doing this smaller businesses struggled to survive.

Answer 2

It's a very complex issue, but went basically like this:

Darwinism states that nature weeds out the weak, so the gene pool is purified (since only the genetically superior survive). Using this logic,business owners justified their horrid practices by saying that the poor were poor because they were genetically inferior. This thinking led to the belief that they were also morally inferior, and thus should be given as little pay and free time as possible, for if these "morally inferior" people were given any money more than what they needed to buy food, or given any free time, they would simply blow the money on immoral practices such as prostitutes and alcohol, and thus, buy denying workers any luxuries whatsoever, they are preventing them from reproducing, and thus improving the human race.


Note that social darwinism also had strong roots in Protestantism and the protestant work ethic, but talking about that would take several essays

Answer 3

Social Darwinism held that those made better or worse by industrialization were based on the natural predisposition of the people effected. For those who were made better off, the success of those people demonstrated that they had a well-evolved culture and this expansion would help remove or improve underperforming cultures, which were those "chosen" by those who were made worse off.

Answer 4

They argued that the competition between businesses was similar to the competition between species in the Theory of Evolution. As a result, in a laissez-faire "natural" system, only the best businesses would survive. This would promote better businesses and stronger industry

Of course, the argument is fatuous. The competition between businesses in a laissez-faire system often relied on actions that would be counterproductive to the rest of society, such as trust-making and horizontal, employee-underpayment, factory sabotaging, capital deterrents, and numerous other problems.

Answer 5

It was a justification for the harsh conditions they put on their laborers and to defeat competition if you could not stay in the game you then its better that you did not win.

Answer 6

Social Darwinism attempted to justify the social consequences of industrial capitalism in that some sections of society are more fit to survive than others.

Answer 7

It made it easier ti tax the people.