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Michael Vignone

Professor Babcock

English 137H

5 October, 2022

The Modern Development of Extortive Capitalism

America was built upon the back of the worker. Since the founding of the country, what

has defined America was its unique ability to sustain growth while attempting to provide its

citizens with the life they wanted. The American dream became a beacon for those who sought a

better life and for those who sought to make a new life in America. As more people flooded the

borders, more people got greeted in America with well wishes. This system however was not

destined to work forever, and that is where Jacob Riis and his work How the Other-Half

Lives and more importantly photos like Lodgers in a Crowded Bayard Street Tenement, Five

Cents a Spot came to be. Manhattan became a breeding ground for corruption and abuse of

power as the city tried to make the best use of the influx of immigrant workers. In present times,

this is no longer the issue, well kind of. Instead of occurring on domestic soil where our products

are no longer made, it is occurring in China, where most of our products are manufactured in the

modern age. Companies like EUPA, which was featured in the Discovery channel

documentary Factory City by Mark Stevenson create what appears to be the best environment

for their workers while simultaneously taking the world away from them.  Through the

development of conflicting ideologies of hope and exploitive capitalism and the development of

intrinsic exigence, both Stevenson and Riis exhibit that to dismantle a systemic issue one must

continue to evolve the argument to fit modern commonplaces.

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When immigrants came to our shores, they sought the American dream. When the

American businessman got involved that dream soon became a nightmare. Coming with nothing

on their backs, “…the necessities of the poor[immigrants] became the opportunity of their

wealthier neighbors” (Riis 63; “Genesis of the Tenement”). The capitalist businessman, looking

to maximize his profits, saw people desperate for work, and weas more than willing to grow their

companies to accommodate the cheap labor. What would grow out of this corrupt abuse of the

nation’s newest citizens was a problem far greater than anyone could have anticipated.  Jacob

Riis was one of the first people to truly expose this neglect to the citizens of New York. It was

through pictures like Lodgers in a Crowded Bayard Street Tenement, Five Cents a Spot that

opened the eyes of the rich to the poor. The image depicts 6 men, sleeping two to a bed. Riis

later writes that this room was no more than 13 by 13 long and would be used to house more than

12 people each night (Riis107; “The Bend”). Riis sought to expose what the upper class's greed

and neglect had bred on the streets of lower Manhattan. Some called the immigrant boom fate.

Some probably called it an answer to manufacturers problems. But few saw it for what it really

was: selfish negligence. It was with the help of people like Riis that the people who struggled the

greatest, who worked 18-hour days for pennies, who lived 20 to a tenement, who lived on the

streets because there was nowhere else to go had a voice. All the upper class knew was that their

clothes continued to be cheap, all the while it was coming at the expense of the immigrant

worker who only wanted to make a better life for themselves in America. 

In modern days, when all that we can dream of is just a click away, America no longer

must worry about the threat of extorting workers. Now China has become one of the greatest

examples of the capitalist mindsets in modern history. As Ed Burtynsky, a labor writer in China

recounts, “…they’re just saying ‘wherever there’s money, we’re [China] going to do it’… They
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don’t care what they’re making as long as we [USA] buy it” (Axline, para. 14). In a need to

meet the demand of the American materialist mindset, China has developed its own system for

feeding the growing materialistic demand. Their solution, factory cities. Part factory and part

home, factory cities speckle the Chinese landscape spanning hundreds of acres per facility. In his

documentary Factory City, Stevenson exhibits how a company can simultaneously give

everything while taking everything away from its workers. These city factories, with more than

17,000 employees, work an average 9 to 5. Instead of going home, employees go to their

company-subsidized apartments.  For lunch and dinner, they eat at one of the 5 onsite

restaurants. If they have trouble with their neighbor, they call HR. If they want to get married,

they can have a conjoined wedding with other company love birds in front of all their coworkers.

It all seems like a dystopian novel brought to life. While talking about the stream of laborers, the

narrator states, “For the 17,000 employees, they come all over China seeking a better future”

(Factory 3:20). It is companies like EUPA that facilitate the selfish intentions of capitalism to

take advantage of those who are searching for a new life. No different from the conflict of

ideologies that Riis had to fight in the 1890s the businessman still holds all the power over the

lives of their employees. It is companies like EUPA who maintain a grasp over the well-being of

their workers. The only difference, EUPA gives their workers a better life. However, the workers

do not have control; it is EUPA who can still take away the food, the home, and the job. One can

argue then that there truly has been no change in the system, just who it is being taken advantage

of.  

It is often easier to be oblivious to an issue instead of being the person to confront it. In

New York, it was very easy to ignore the problem that had arisen in the slums. The attention of

the rich was always turned away from the poor and the world that they were living in, even when
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it was just the next block over. There was no need for the people to care. There was no point in

concerning themselves with the needs of the immigrants.  Yet, the neglect and despair of the

poor in the tenements “…bred their Nemesis, a proletariat ready and able to avenge the wrongs

of their crowd” (Riis 69; “The Awakening”). That is what made Riis so effective; he was part of

“their crowd”. Having immigrated as a young boy, he knew the struggles that the people in the

slums were experiencing. He collected stories and pictures, to show people what was hidden

behind each door in the slums. He made his earliest appeals to churchgoers. Being a catholic,

Riis hoped to find that his fellow Catholics would be virtuous enough to realize that they too

needed to help the slums. And it worked. Riis’ message continued to grow and grow as more

people, religious and not, heard the stories of the slums. For the first time in their lives the rich

realized the world that was just outside of their view. Riis started with nothing, he had to build

the interest, he had to build his platform, and he had to start from the bottom. He had to convince

New York that this was an issue worth fighting for. Once the door was cracked, the rest of New

York soon after ripped it open looking to help in whatever means they could.  

In current times, it is much easier to be exposed to the troubles that plague the world. 

Many know the extortion that occurs in mass production factories. Every few weeks a new

company comes under fire for child labor or breaking international law. Yet, it happens every

week, leaving many feeling helpless in the fight. Stevenson, to contrast the societal norm,

presents EUPA as the ideal company. He makes the world seem like it is good. The workers are

well fed, they have homes, and they can spend time with their families. He then juxtaposes these

ideal qualities of life with phrasing like “[EUPA] runs on human sweat alone, no need for

robots” (Factory 2:44). What appears good and well on the surface slowly begins to

evolve. What is happening at companies like EUPA is the modern-day equivalent of the

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extortive capitalism that was witnessed in the 1890s. Much unlike Riis who had to start the fire

of action; Stevenson has an audience that is primed to burn, he simply must provide the fuel.

Stevenson appeals to the morals of the readers, not so much as to their emotions to develop his

case. He recognizes that the world doesn’t need to see another horror story to push them further

towards inactivity. He provided his viewers with a new look at the same issue we have all heard

about. Through developing these intrinsic proofs that resonate with the viewers, Stevenson

provided the opportunity for a new age of action to occur. One that was not based on ignorance

or inaction but motivated by the pursuit of fair labor.           

Whether it be domestic or foreign, clearly witnessed or hidden with facades, exploitive

capitalism has clearly not met its match. Many argue that it is not like it was back then and it is

“so much better now”. The problem lies just there. That there is still a problem in the now. Sure,

that problem we see now no longer looks like the same problem it historically was. Struggling

immigrants have become impoverished citizens. Mega subsidized housing communities have

replaced stacks of tenements. No less, the problem persists always moving just out of view of the

public eye. It is with people like Riis and Stevenson that the issue is not forgotten. They continue

to attack the fundamental ideology of businesses. They continue to turn the light towards the

darkness where trouble is lurking. Each day an attempt to show one more person to the world

that remains behind closed doors; knowing that each door opening is now one less place to hide

for the businessman.  

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Work Cited

Axline, Keith. “Endless Assembly Lines and Giant Cafeterias; inside China's Vast Factories.”
Wired, Conde Nast, 25 June 2007, https://www.wired.com/2007/06/endless-assembly-
lines-and-giant-cafeterias-inside-chinas-vast-factories/.

Riis, Jacob A. “The Awakening.” How the Other Half Lives Studies among the Tenements of
New York: With Related Documents, edited by David Leviatin, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011,
pp. 69-73.

Riis, Jacob A. “The Bend .” How the Other Half Lives Studies among the Tenements of New
York: With Related Documents, edited by David Leviatin, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston,
2011, pp. 98–109.

Riis, Jacob A. “Genesis of the Tenement.” How the Other Half Lives Studies among the
Tenements of New York: With Related Documents, edited by David Leviatin, Bedford/St.
Martin's, 2011, pp. 63–68.

Riis, Jacob A. Lodgers in a Crowded Bayard Street Tenement, Five Cents a Night . New York
City.

Stevenson, Mark, director. Factory City. YouTube, 5 Jan. 2011,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMm-YMO5H7o. Accessed 3 Oct. 2022.