Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt is a satire on American business and life, and the town of Zenith in which George Babbitt lives is saturated with corruption. There is almost no aspect of the town's life that is not corrupt and Lewis shows the links among the various types of corruption--one supporting the next. The very first business deal in which Babbitt engages in the book is an example of the chain-effect that corrupt, unethical business practices have. Babbitt and his friends are, of course, not aware of any of this and spend much of their time at their club and in their churches patting themselves on the back for being ethical American businessmen (though Lewis extends the satire of corruption to include Englishmen as well).
Lewis begins with a description of a typical day in Babbitt's life and the first business deal he undertakes is the scheme with the speculator Conrad Lyte. Babbitt is a realtor and he and his client Lyte conspire to buy up land that they know a certain butcher needs in order to expand his business. Since they have the land in their possession they are able to demand an exorbitant price from the butcher. The surprise for the reader at this point is that the butcher barely protests being swindled in this way. Instead he pays up and is content to think that he will simply pass the cost on to his customers by charging higher prices.
Passing the cost on to the public is the means by which the system is kept going. Of course Babbitt and his friends fail to connect things like overpriced meat to the strike that occurs much later in the novel. Babbitt is in his rebellious period and, under the influence of Seneca Doane, is somewhat disturbed when he hears that the workers are striking because they cannot afford food. Even this does not spark a connection in Babbitt's brain, of course, and he eventually resumes his old attitudes.
Had he thought about the connection Babbitt might have been able to see tha...