Scott Noble's documentary traces income inequality in America back to the country's founding, arguing that class conflict has shaped US history as much as any other force. Archival photographs, period illustrations, and historian interviews carry the story from early industrialization through the Gilded Age, covering the rise of factory labor, the Pinkerton agency's role breaking strikes, and the violence used against organizers pushing for an eight-hour day and basic safety standards. The film pays particular attention to how wealth concentrated in the hands of industrialists like the robber barons was defended with hired militias, local police, and at times federal troops, turning labor disputes into armed confrontations. It also traces how discrimination by race and gender was used to keep the workforce divided and wages low. The narration builds a case that repression of organized labor was not incidental but a recurring feature of how American capitalism developed, using court rulings, newspaper coverage, and firsthand accounts from the era to back the claim.