The term Gilded Age was first appeared in print in a 1873 Novel co written by Mark Twain, and entitled: "The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today." At the time the term gilded age referred to a line from Shakespeare's "King John" which referred to an action that was both ridiculous and excessive. The other sense which becomes clear in the novel, is the distinguishing between a golden age of true prosperity, and a gilded age of apparent prosperity. The themes of the novel are mostly concerned with the pervasive corruption of greed, and how much of a toxic force it was become in contemporary society. In the years after the books publishing, the term Gilded Age gained a new political meaning, increasingly used to demonstrate the failed promises of prosperity from the new economic order. This resentment against the robber barons, compounded by repeated labor abuses, and accusation of political corruption lead to several economic changes that brought the economy closer to its current form. Labor unions, abolition of child labor, an 8 hour work day, small measures of wall street accountability, and eventually the minimum wage were changes brought about to correct the rampant abuses of the gilded age.