Social Darwinism most heavily affected the US government's relationship to big business during the late 1800s, coined by Mark Twain as "the Gilded Age." The theory affected this relationship by convincing (or allowing politicians to convince themselves) that only the strongest will survive and thus the government operated under a <em>laissez-faire </em>system (French for "hands off"). The government felt it should not regulate or weigh in on business issues and instead let businesses conduct affairs amongst themselves; however, this led to the creation of large monopolies, the formation of a moneyed elite still with us today, and the creation of the now huge wealth gap between the richest and poorest Americans.
