Our New Gilded Age Of Wealthy Authoritarians! Can A New Era Begin With Kamala Harris?

By Donald A. Collins | 11 October 2024
Church and State

(Credit: YouTube / screengrab)

While there are many important exceptions to those with great wealth in the United States today, what has happened is that the concentration of wealth in the top percentages of income has created a situation very like the famous golden age of the 1890s.

Question: “Who coined the term Gilded Age?

The Gilded Age took its name from the novel The Gilded Age, written by Mark Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner and published in 1873.

Gilded Age, a period of gross materialism and blatant political corruption in U.S. history during the 1870s that gave rise to important novels of social and political criticism. The period takes its name from the earliest of these, The Gilded Age (1873), written by Mark Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner. The novel gives a vivid and accurate description of Washington, D.C., and is peopled with caricatures of many leading figures of the day, including greedy industrialists and corrupt politicians.

The great burst of industrial activity and corporate growth that characterized the Gilded Age was presided over by a collection of colourful and energetic entrepreneurs who became known alternatively as “captains of industry” and “robber barons.” They grew rich through the monopolies they created in the steel, petroleum, and transportation industries. Among the best known of them were John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Leland Stanford, and J.P. Morgan.

Read more here.

The State of U.S. Wealth Inequality as of August 02, 2024

Key Takeaways

For the first quarter of 2024 (through March 31):

How much wealth inequality is there in the U.S.?

  • The top 10% of households by wealth had $6.9 million on average. As a group, they held 67% of total household wealth.
  • The bottom 50% of households by wealth had $51,000 on average. As a group, they held only 2.5% of total household wealth.

What is the current generational wealth gap?

  • Younger Americans (millennials and Gen Zers) owned $1.25 for every $1 of wealth owned by Gen Xers at the same age.3
  • Younger Americans (millennials and Gen Zers) owned $1.26 for every $1 of wealth owned by baby boomers at the same age.

What is the current racial wealth gap?

  • Black families owned about 23 cents for every $1 of white family wealth, on average.
  • Hispanic families owned about 19 cents for every $1 of white family wealth, on average.

Read more here.

It gets worse and worse. “Nine Charts about Wealth Inequality in America in an article April 25, 2024 you can read in full here.

Here are a few quotes:

Wealth inequality is higher in the United States than in almost any other developed country and has risen for much of the past 60 years. Racial wealth inequities have persisted for generations, reflecting the long-standing effects of racist policies, not individual intentions or deficits. In a nation that professes that those who work hard and play by the rules should be rewarded with social and economic upward mobility, these persistent disparities are a stark reminder that, as a society, we have not achieved this goal.

These charts tell the story of wealth inequality in the United States. The first three show wealth disparities over time across race and age. The remainder demonstrate how gaps in earnings, homeownership rates, retirement savings, emergency savings, benefits from tax subsidies, and intergenerational transfers contribute to wealth inequities. We also identify evidence-based solutions that policymakers can implement to reduce systemic inequities and build wealth for all Americans.

Wealth is increasing but so is inequality.

In the past 60 years, America witnessed a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest families, increasing wealth inequality. In 1963, the wealthiest families had 36 times the wealth of families in the middle of the wealth distribution. By 2022, they had 71 times the wealth of families in the middle.”

POLICY SOLUTIONS will require drastic reevaluation of present policies which will be an anathema to the restrictive GOP vision of Trump.

Let’s be sure here to make clear that the industrial revolution of the Gilded Age brought huge advances in material benefits to vast numbers of people including the flood of immigrants who filled the lands acquired from the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican War (1846-1848) and the 1853 Gadsden Purchase events that gave credibility to our leaders the belief that the US was fulfilling our divine right known as Manifest Destiny! Others might have used the word rapacious intent.

The Industrial revolution came in two phases starting in 1733 when the UK started burning for electricity but you can read here how we benefited and the Gilded Age began in the 1870’s and lasted until the early 20th century.

This is the 9/14/24 Britannica summary.

Industrial Revolution, in modern history, the process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. These technological changes introduced novel ways of working and living and fundamentally transformed society. This process began in Britain in the 18th century and from there spread to other parts of the world. Although used earlier by French writers, the term Industrial Revolution was first popularized by the English economic historian Arnold Toynbee (1852–83) to describe Britain’s economic development from 1760 to 1840. Since Toynbee’s time the term has been more broadly applied as a process of economic transformation than as a period of time in a particular setting. This explains why some areas, such as China and India, did not begin their first industrial revolutions until the 20th century, while others, such as the United States and western Europe, began undergoing “second” industrial revolutions by the late 19th century.

Now to now.

Here are some facts about wealth inequality in America:

Wealth inequality is higher in the United States than in almost any other developed country and has risen for much of the past 60 years. Racial wealth inequities have persisted for generations, reflecting the long-standing effects of racist policies, not individual intentions or deficits. In a nation that professes that those who work hard and play by the rules should be rewarded with social and economic upward mobility, these persistent disparities are a stark reminder that, as a society, we have not achieved this goal.

These charts tell the story of wealth inequality in the United States. The first three show wealth disparities over time across race and age. The remainder demonstrate how gaps in earnings, homeownership rates, retirement savings, emergency savings, benefits from tax subsidies, and intergenerational transfers contribute to wealth inequities. We also identify evidence-based solutions that policymakers can implement to reduce systemic inequities and build wealth for all Americans.

In the past 60 years, America witnessed a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest families, increasing wealth inequality. In 1963, the wealthiest families had 36 times the wealth of families in the middle of the wealth distribution. By 2022, they had 71 times the wealth of families in the middle.

Between 1963 and 2022, families near the bottom of the wealth distribution (those at the 10th percentile) went from having $23 in debt to $450 in wealth, those in the middle (50th percentile) nearly quadrupled their wealth (from $50,598 to $192,700), those near the top (at the 90th percentile) saw their wealth increase more than sixfold (from $294,573 to $1.9 million), and the wealthiest families—those wealthier than 99 percent of all families—saw their wealth increase more than sevenfold (from $1.8 million to $13.6 million).

As a ratio, this gap decreased somewhat between 2016 and 2022, when the wealthiest families’ wealth dropped from 107 times greater than that of families in the middle to 71 times greater.

Read more here.

So the list of billionaires reveals concentrated power that existed in the earlier American Gilded Age.

This is a list of the wealthiest Americans ranked by net worth. It is based on an annual assessment of wealth and assets by Forbes and by data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The Forbes 400 Richest Americans list has been published annually since 1982. The combined net worth of the 2020 class of the 400 richest Americans was $3.2 trillion, up from $2.7 trillion in 2017. As of March 2023, there were 735 billionaires in the United States.

Top 25 richest Americans

According to Forbes, as of September 2023, the 10 wealthiest people in the United States are as follows:

Some of these billionaires have been incredibly generous with their wealth for the common good, but in aggregate they and the corporate entities they represent have taken over control of our government at the Federal and State levels. Trump has rallied the most rapacious and immoral among this long list and their minions to back this take over so they can install harsh remake of our federal bureaucracy while reducing the freedom and political power of his working class MAGA supporters with authoritarian rule. Elon Musk a major Trump backer claimed that unless Trump is elected, we will never have another election!!

When in 1901 President McKinley was assassinated Teddy Roosevelt became President and began the process of being a trust buster augmented by the so callee Muckrakers who began exposing the abominable working conditions of many and corruption of the rich so that by 1920. After WW 1 America entered the Progressive Era and the Roaring Twenties and when in 1932 Franklin Roosevelt inherited the Great Depression which was broken by the positive economic effect of WWII we entered a new era leading to our present Gilded Age. Should we elect a dynamic first woman President there seems to be chance for renewal and a retention of our deeply divided staggering republic started with its unique visions in 1792. We need a new Prosecutor which pursues truth and freedom.

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us”, “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”, “On the Precipice of Political Disaster in 2024”, “Democracy at Red State Risk” and “Does Trump Go to Jail or to The Oval Office?”.

Mark Cuban on the Harris tax plan: She is pro-business, going center 100%

How Wealth Inequality Spiraled Out of Control | Robert Reich

12 Myths About Taxing the Rich | Robert Reich

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2 COMMENTS

  1. The inequality is based on unique value creation. Unique value is that which the free market will pay a premium. Working hard is not the path to wealth. Taxing the wealthy is not the path to alleviate inequality. One must fix the moral dilemma faced by individuals who fail to recognize the need to compete in unique value creation. Fix that and government spending is reduced as social betting is dramatically reduced, the bottom 50% who are not fairly participating in taxes as they pay only 3.1% if income taxes will earn more and pay their fair share, 50% of the population won’t be subsidized by the top 50%, and America becomes more competitive by creating greater value.

    Truth is it takes very little to retire a millionaire but lack of growth behaviors stymies people in achieving goal; a goal that must exist if wealth inequality is bring discussed. In America, if you get a part time job flipping hamburgers at the mist minimum wage of $7.25/hr for ad little as 6.5 hrs/week investing the net of tax income in an s&p500 index fund each week, and doing this from age 20 to 30 and then stopping the part time job and just waiting until retirement age for the investment yo continue to grow and you find yourself a millionaire. So basic discipline and making a choice was all that mattered. Inequality is a chosen path here… the job and pay needed to achieve this was so minimal that IQ, education, family history or any other non self imposed burden can limit your ability to be a millionaire in your lifetime. Of course you can do more or less but once it is recognized that choice and barely any effort earns you a million it is rather obvious that inequality is a decision you make and complaining about your choices and taking from others who made better choices and are supporting you via paying 96.9% of income taxes is poor form. And every wealthy person creates job opportunities for many and if you could just focus on creating your life to address hour individual contribution then wealth would be yours as well.

  2. Sorry for typos
    Difficult to type snd see on handheld

    I updated here on computer

    Inequality stems from the ability to generate unique value, which the free market rewards with a premium. Hard work alone is not the route to wealth, nor is taxing the wealthy a solution for reducing inequality. The key lies in addressing the moral dilemma faced by those who fail to engage in creating unique value. Once this issue is tackled, government spending on social safety nets will decrease, as fewer people will rely on them. The bottom 50% of earners, who currently contribute only 3.1% of income taxes, will earn more and pay a fairer share. As a result, half the population will no longer be subsidized by the other half, and America’s overall competitiveness will rise as greater value is created.

    In reality, it doesn’t take much to accumulate wealth. The obstacle is often a lack of growth-oriented behaviors. For instance, in the U.S., if someone took a part-time job flipping burgers at the minimum wage of $7.25/hour, working just 6.5 hours per week, and invested the net income in an S&P 500 index fund starting at age 20, they could stop working at 30 and let the investment grow until retirement. By that time, they could potentially become a millionaire. This shows that discipline and making deliberate choices are all it takes.

    Inequality, in this sense, is a choice. The minimal effort required to achieve this goal demonstrates that IQ, education, family history, or other perceived barriers are not necessarily limiting factors to wealth accumulation. People can always do more or less, but once it becomes clear that minimal effort can lead to significant financial growth, it’s evident that inequality results from personal decisions. Complaining about the outcomes of those choices while demanding from others who made better decisions—especially when the top 50% of earners pay 96.9% of income taxes—is counterproductive. Wealthy individuals create job opportunities, and focusing on your own contribution to value creation can lead to financial success for yourself as well.

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