#second gilded age

[gwydionmisha]

Sec. Robert Reich: A New Progressive Era Will Follow This Second Gilded Age

America Has Been Going Backwards Since The Reagan Era - Sec. Robert Reich

[shrimpathizer]

hello there friend what pray tell do you find so interesting about laissez faire economics? /genuine

hi!

okay this might be long. also im realizing that i am accidentally sort of writing this essay style.

so first of all: laissez faire economics is basically when the government goes hands off on the economy.

the u.s. has taken this approach (whether under this name or not) multiple times over the past 250 ish years of its existence.

(notably, this is happening now. some people say that we are living in a second gilded age. while the conditions we work in are on average slightly better — more people are unionized, less children work in factories, hours are shorter, pay is slightly better — we do still have an incredible disparity between the extremely wealthy minuscule elite and the large swaths of poverty).

personally, i dont think laissez faire economics is a good idea. however, every few presidential terms, someone comes along and sees that there is some amount of prosperity. but you know what would bring more prosperity? if we let the companies have full rein. decrease regulations. decrease taxes for the rich. don't meddle in labor disputes. and you know what? they were right. there was prosperity. for the rich. the rich were allowed to gain an insane amount of wealth and treat their workers badly.

side note: i am primarily thinking/talking about the gilded age (1870s-1900 approx) and reaganomics (1980s).

in the gilded age, monopolists were able to become monopolists because they could pay their workers terribly, make the workers work incredibly long days (one of the demands of the homestead strike and the haymarket riot (both in 1880s) was an eight hour work day. according to this digital history article unskilled workers at the carnegie steel mill made about $1.70 for a 12 hour day).

also another fun fact about carnegie steel company: in 1892 there as the homestead strike at the homestead mill (for the reasons i just outlined). and carnegie called up the pinkerton guards. the pinkerton guards are a union busting agency. carnegie also called in the national guard to break up the strike. but what is interesting about this is that in 2011 Jeff Bezos hired pinkerton guards to union bust amazon.

okay so i strayed a bit from the original question. basically, i find the gilded age (and the fact that we are living in a second gilded age) very interesting. it is simultaneously uplifting and depressing. that we fall into these patterns and cannot help but forget our past mistakes. but we have recovered from them in the past so we can do it again.

other links about this i find interesting:

robert reich on living in the second gilded age

graph of the share of income going to the top 10% vs union membership

anyways thanks for asking!

[alanshemper]

The Politics of a Second Gilded Age

BY MATT KARP, 2/8/21

[progressivemillennial]

The question will arise and arise in your day, though perhaps not fully in mine: Which shall rule — wealth or man? Which shall lead — money or intellect? Who shall fill public stations — educated and patriotic freemen or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?

Edward G. Ryan, Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 1874 to 1880

[nolan-higdon]

🚨 JUST PUBLISHED: The New Gaslight Gazette 🚨

The deep dive continues. My latest research into the Epstein files is live, uncovering a web of connections that spans the highest levels of our society.

This edition features new revelations on:

🏛️ Political Powerhouses & the Intelligence Community

💰 Financial Elites pulling the strings

🎓 Academia & News Media complicity

🔞 Sordid details regarding their private lives

The data is out there. The question remains: Will there ever be true justice?

The Epstein Class

Shielding the Architects of the Second Gilded Age

Read the full report here: https://open.substack.com/pub/nolanhigdon/p/the-epstein-class

📢 Like | Follow | Comment | Subscribe #EpsteinFiles #GaslightGazette #Investigation #Accountability #BreakingNews

[diamond-in-the-rough-draft]

So glad to hear the construction on the gaudy eyesore that is the new ballroom will be continuing during the shutdown

Who needs healthcare and airplane inspections when your president has his tacky gilt ballroom? We need the symbolism to be obvious people

/s

[alanshemper]

“Divided government is no disaster for the investor class or the politicians who serve it.”

— Matt Karp, "The politics of a second gilded age,” Jacobin, Feb 2021

[resistneoliberalism]

Shouting into the Abyss in the Second Gilded Age

Banks plead guilty. U.S. government fines banks $2.5 billion. Banks borrow money from the U.S. government (Federal Reserve) at 0.75% to pay fines.

U.S. government allows banks to continue to operate as is.

Banks continue to borrow money from the U.S. government (Federal Reserve) at 0.75%. Banks lend money to consumers at much higher rates, from 3.5% (mortgages) to 25% (credit cards).

Freedom and Justice for all!*

*No, not really for all, but for the select few who have been able to rig the system in their favor. We may want to stop worrying so much about Republicans and Democrats, about guns and marriage equality, about Christians and Muslims, because, as you may have noticed, it doesn't really matter what we think about these issues; we have no control; we have no voice. Really, when you look at it like this, we're only one people, one downtrodden, disenfranchised, politically oppressed people.

But that's not the problem: it's that we don't seem to know that we're voiceless, and, in many cases, we don't seem to care. Some of us have made a bargain with the powerful: "Give me access to credit so I can buy an iPhone, a TV, a car, clothes, tickets to Jamaica, and in return I'll give you political apathy, free reign to create a system that benefits you 354 times more than it does me [CEO to worker pay ratio], a system that steals from me and gives to you."

As for the rest of us- we just shout into an abyss, our messages lost in translation as the media, the mouthpiece for powerful, convert our human cries for help into partisan platitudes for propaganda: divide and conquer; distract and erode.

So, what can we do about it? First of all, reject the bargain. Form no more lines at the Apple Store for iPhone releases, at Best Buy for Black Friday. Demand that more productivity equal more pay; that more work equal overtime pay; that if corporations are people with rights, then unions are, too. The only way we escaped the First Gilded Age alive was through protests, strikes, massive riots; and if they don’t hear us shouting now, then in this Second Gilded Age, let unrest speak for us once again.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/five-major-banks-agree-parent-level-guilty-pleas