How does the current lopsided justice system of the 1% compare to that of the Robber Baron days?

[captain queeg]

Let’s face it, America has always treated its richest citizens in different ways than the average, or poor, or slave, or native population. Let’s be clear, the US is far from perfect, still it’s been a shining beacon of a new and better society compared to the majority of the time human civilization has been on the planet; I’m not trying to detract from the great experiment we are. There have been many phases of painful change and it seems like maybe huge social changes are largely one issue at a time. There are many changes needed right now but the way the rich and powerful are immune to having to pay the price of their actions seems especially glaring.

I’m kind of a student of history but not very knowledgeable about how society has evolved. It would seem the US has gone thru the rise of the super rich and at least a partial adjustment when it got too bad. I’m thinking of the days of the Robber Barons. I think it was largely Teddy Roosevelt who stepped in to make some changes. He is one of my heroes in some ways but was also a racist war monger. We are not going to find a person with no flaws to help lead us in our time of need but I hope we can get someone as dynamic as Teddy to get the US to change course.

I just woke up and haven’t had my coffee yet so I’m kind of rambling but just wondered how things today compared to those times and what the biggest catalysts for change were back then.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. The robber barons lived in an essentially lawless time.

From the Wiki account of the Johnstown Flood:

According to records compiled by The Johnstown Area Heritage Association, bodies were found as far away as Cincinnati, and as late as 1911; 99 entire families died in the flood, including 396 children; 124 women and 198 men were widowed; 98 children were orphaned; and one third of the dead, 777 people, were never identified; their remains were buried in the "Plot of the Unknown" in Grandview Cemetery in Westmont.[18][1]

It was the worst flood to hit the U.S. in the 19th century. 1600 homes were destroyed, $17 million in property damage levied (approx. $497 million in 2016), and 4 square miles (10 km2) of downtown Johnstown were completely destroyed. Debris at the stone bridge covered 30 acres,[18] and clean-up operations were to continue for years. Cambria Iron and Steel's facilities were heavily damaged; they returned to full production within 18 months.[1]

But, suing the owners of the dam was fruitless at at the time...

Effect on the development of American law
Survivors were unable to recover damages in court because of the club's ample resources. First, the wealthy club owners had designed the club's financial structure to keep their personal assets separated from it and, secondly, it was difficult for any suit to prove that any particular owner had behaved negligently. Though the former reason was probably more central to the failure of survivors' suits against the club, the latter received coverage and extensive criticism in the national press.

As a result of this criticism, in the 1890s, state courts around the country adopted Rylands v. Fletcher, a British common-law precedent which had formerly been largely ignored in the United States. State courts' adoption of Rylands, which held that a non-negligent defendant could be held liable for damage caused by the unnatural use of land, foreshadowed the legal system's 20th-century acceptance of strict liability.

Human nature often means business is conducted as wars are-- it is not enough to make a decent profit, the competition must also be destroyed. This disaster is just one that energized the public to get something done, although what has been done is always being undone by the usual suspects.

If you haven't already, find a biography of Jim Fisk, one of the worst who left no libraries or monuments to his "achievements"-- just broken lives and reams.

Also, if you haven't already, read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". ( https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/140 ). It's the book that outraged Teddy Roosevelt and set the nation to pass the Pure Food Laws in the early 1900s. (No one soon forgets the poor guy who fell into the rendering vat and became a small part of every package of lard sold in Chicago for a while.)

[captain queeg]

2. I commented on an earlier thread that AC/refrigeration was the top of the list of greatest invention

Saw that on the History Channel one time. Something I agreed with. Not long after I was watching some other show with the same theme; greatest inventions in history. Had some suit come out and say it was the Limited Liability Corporation. Of course he’d say that I thought. It’s been a great boon to the rich. Trying to be open minded, I’d have to admit that no doubt LLCs have boosted mankind’s progress but many have suffered at the bottom of the totem pole.