The Growth of Government from 1877 to 1920 was the worst example of “America the Great Exception” because every time the government took a step forward to make America better, it inevitably it took 5 steps back. The transportation revolution in the 1800s sparked industrialization and the construction of railroads that stimulated every other industry resulting in an economic boom known as the Gilded Age. From the outside, America looked like the place to go to make all your dreams come true. But in reality, that was an era of serious social problems caused mainly by an economy with a free market policy, low tariffs, low taxes, less spending and a non-interventional government. This type of economy would eventually lead to the development of monopolies. These monopolies would then, in turn, lead to worker revolts – caused by the suppression of unions created primarily by unskilled workers – which would contribute to America's rapid rise and fall. An example of this repression is the Homestead Strike of 1892; Due to the hostility created by the unions, the employer fired all the workers and rehired them on the basis that there would be no more unions. After workers resumed work, conditions were still unbearable, so workers closed the facility. The police intervened, the workers were pushed back, and the facility was reopened without a union. Even on the East Coast the government took advantage of the people. As a result of the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, the government began making land grants – through the Homestead Act of 1862 – for Americans to live and farm; the only problem was that another culture already lived on the territory: the Sioux nation. After the S... middle of paper... the negative impact is the government's reaction to the stock market crash. While the American people suffered from extreme unemployment and extreme hunger, all the government did was initiate "repatriation" campaigns to send undocumented immigrants, mostly Mexican Americans, back to their home country. Hoover, the then president, refused to create any project aimed at helping American citizens escape from the "Hooverville" conditions in which they were forced to live. The government even refused to give World War I veterans the bonus they were prematurely promised. survive. Overall, the growth of American government was supposed to compliment American culture. Instead, due to mass corruption, corporate influence, and foreign policy, the enormous growth of the federal government has hindered the great success America should have achieved..