Gilded Age

I was wondering how many people think that a broadly sized Gilded Age corresponds to this age. Say between 1880 and1930.. about one century ago.

Just some thoughts, who today reminds you of Carnege, Rockefeller, Morgon, Mellon and others who accumulated such great wealth?
Was there an inequality of income?
Are there trust busters today like Teddy Roosevelt?
A Teapot Dome?
Women's Temperance?
Economic Tariffs?
Irish/Italian emigration/racism?
Religious intolerance?

Broadly asking if you think history repeats itself in America? and if so, what is next? If not, what will happen from now to say 2030?

pounder said:

I was wondering how many people think that a broadly sized Gilded Age corresponds to this age. Say between 1880 and1930.. about one century ago.

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Interesting idea for a thread.

Just some thoughts, who today reminds you of Carnege, Rockefeller, Morgon, Mellon and others who accumulated such great wealth?

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The private equity firms own, or will own virtually all of our American businesses. And they are not lead by philanthropists like Carnegie for example. They tend to donate to Israel and Jewish scholarship funds, or art museums.

Was there an inequality of income?

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Yes, no doubt about it. Wages today are suppressed by low skilled, and H-1b workers. Americans are much better off today than during the Gilded Age, on average, but now basic needs like housing, transportation, food, etc are unattainable, or rapidly pricing people out of the market, unless they belong to today's upper class, which Eisenhower warned about when he said beware of the scientific/technological industry becoming its own class of people who would exert massive control over people's lives.

Are there trust busters today like Teddy Roosevelt?

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Donald Trump......prior to inauguration He's now bathing in the swamp he said he'd drain, of course.

A Teapot Dome?

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No, but I believe bribery and corruption is worse today than during the Gilded Age. FDA officials go to work at big pharma companies after approving their new drugs for market, Goldman Sachs determines who sits on the SEC board, and Trump would appoint Mr Burns from the Simpsons as head of the EPA if he could, but to his chagrin, Mr Burns isn't a real person.

Women's Temperance?

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Not that I'm aware of.

Economic Tariffs?

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Irish/Italian emigration/racism?

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Resentment towards today's immigration communities, because they flout our laws to get here, receive government handouts unlike the Irish and Italians, and don't seem interested in assimilating to the same degree the Irish and Italians did, because the idea of pride in Americanism is now scary, and nationalistic, and just ignorant of what it means to be a Global Citizen, which is more important than American citizenship .

Religious intolerance?

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Yes. Now its irreligious intolerance of primarily Christians, a reversal from the 1800s. Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism are under no obligation to separate themselves from public life, however, and it's perfectly acceptable for people of those faiths to display their religious beliefs and their loyalty to their god over their country/fellow Americans.

Broadly asking if you think history repeats itself in America? and if so, what is next? If not, what will happen from now to say 2030?

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Large scale themes do repeat themselves, if not in a fashion which precisely mirrors the original. By 2030, we're going to experience Wall St's attempt to displace millions of workers through automation, which isn't going to be as easy to overcome as we're being coaxed into believing ('it'll be just like the Industrial Revolution, no worries', people say).

One of the key questions of the Gilded Age was what is the role of government in society? During the Gilded Age, the answer was simple: to foster wealth and do whatever it could to create conditions to aid and support the growth of wealth.

That was slowly changed during the era of Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Era.

Charles Dudley and Mark Twain's novel, The Gilded Age, gave its title to highlight 1877-to-1900's abundant political corruption amid a socio-economic landscape punctuated by abject poverty palpably juxtaposed against lambent opulence. Is the first fifth of the 21st century Gilded Age redux? Although superficial similarities exist, one's borne mainly of income inequality and amplified poignantly by recent fiscal and trade policy, fundamentally, no, the 21st century's first score is not Gilded Age II.

Reunification of the South and North, the integration of four million newly freed Blacks, westward expansion, immigration, industrialization, urbanization, trends that profoundly affected every aspect of life and every segment of society in last quarter of the 1800s, in but 30 years, monumentally transformed the US from a distant nation driven by dollars and domestic concerns and comprised of dastards, dreamers and many a dashed dream. Though Americans have a detached "first-hand" perspective on the Gilded Age, that proximity, I suspect, biases many modern Americans analysis and guides them to construe this century's start as very much like the Gilded Age.

Taking more than a cursory look at the two eras reveals, even considering the extensive fortunes innovators of each era earned, congenital differences that delegitimize the notion that we are in Gilded Age II.

• Then --> Increasing unionionization and increasing workers' wages; advent of labor laws/rights
  Now --> Relatively stagnant low wages, satisfactory increases in upper middle and upper tier wages; decreasing unionization and union power, but still "tons" of labor protections/rights
• Now --> A social services safety net, however tattered exists.
  Then --> No such safety net existed.
• Then --> Class conflict was the dominant source of violent instances of mass unrest and resentment
  Now --> Gender and race/ethnicity are the dominant sources of violent instances of mass unrest.
• Then --> The Gilded Age was an American event; the reapers of great wealth were overwhelmingly American.
  Now --> The "billionaire-ization" is a global phenomenon; by country, the US has a lot of them, but globally, only about ~25%.
• Then --> Information, current events or advanced research and analysis, was accessible only to a limited few, and dissemination was slow. (Landline telephone was invented.)
  Now --> There is almost no information to which anyone lacks access and distribution is near instantaneous.
• Then --> Physical labor and prowess drove profits and success; geographically constrained.
  Now --> Intellectual labor and prowess drive profits and success; increasing geographical indifference.
• Then --> Effectively no business regulation.
  Now --> Intensive business regulation.
• Then --> Homogenous workforce and political representation
  Now --> Heterogenous workforce and political representation
• Then --> America looked to Europe for cultural leadership
  Now --> The world looks to America for cultural leadership
• Then --> Suffrage: white male only, for all intents and purposes
  Now --> Suffrage: universal majority suffrage
• Then --> Health care: What one couldn't pay for, one didn't get, though what one could pay for sucked anyway; no such thing as health insurance.
  Now --> Health care: Few people pay for their health care.
• Then --> Transportation: slow, risky and dangerous: foot, bicycle, equine, boat or rail; nascent mass transit by trolly; few to no long trips for the masses
  Now --> Transportation: fast, safe; foot, car, bus, train, plane, boat; masses travel far and wide
• Then --> Something far less than 1 in 20 people had a college degree.
  Now --> About 1/3rd of Americans have college degrees.
• Then --> Presidents were politically weak and uncharismatic
  Now --> Presidents are politically powerful and charismatic
• Then --> Immigrants welcomed in droves by political leaders at the highest levels; immigrants drove growth
  Now --> Immigration seen at the highest levels as a threat

The second half of the 19th century was the first time in American and European history that living standards really began to improve. From 1860 to 1890, real wages in the US grew by 60%. Average annual wages even grew by 48%. Although wealth disparity remained high, it saw the growth of a middle class. Yes, the lower class experienced more shoddy conditions than they do now but living standards were lower back then.