The Second Gilded Age
Income distribution has become a major issue in the U.S. The consequences affect us all.
By Jay Brock
COLUMNIST
“It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”
—George Carlin
Say you’re the Army General in charge of a unit of 100 troops who, along with you, are stuck on a desert island without food...except for 100 donuts. How do you distribute those donuts to the hungry soldiers in your unit?
If you follow the example of how wealth is currently distributed in America, you keep 17 donuts for yourself; you give another 50 to your nine officers; and the other 33 donuts get to be shared by the 90 enlisted men and women under your command—with the understanding that the 50 lowest ranking soldiers must share only 2 1/2 donuts.
That’s how wealth is currently distributed in America—the current state of the American Dream.
By the way, if you said every soldier gets one donut—that’s Communism. Can’t have that.
The current distribution of wealth in America is so unbalanced that it’s being called the second Gilded Age—referring to the 1880’s and 1890’s when the Robber Barons of American industry had accumulated vast financial and thus political resources beyond the reach of ordinary Americans. We call such present day individuals the top 1%, but really they’re the top 0.1%—mostly those worth hundreds of millions to hundreds of billions of dollars. (Commonplace millionaires don’t count.)
The imbalance might be excessive, but it’s been there since before Day One of the American Republic, and imbedded in the Constitution written by future President James Madison. One of his major arguments promoting his Constitution was that it would assure great stability to the new Republic: change would be difficult. This would, Madison stressed, be an important factor in protecting the rights of the minority, which would otherwise take a simple majority to abrogate. Which minority did he have in mind? Not the one(s) you might expect in 2025. Madison was referring to wealthy property owners, whose property had to be protected from the grasping whims of the majority of less-entitled citizens.
While there is good reason to protect citizens from government confiscation of one’s personal property, there is at least one consequence: the accumulation of great wealth.
Thus, today a relatively few individuals—with the help of the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision—hold immense sway over political decisions that should be made on behalf of us voters but instead might well be decided in favor of those who already have the financial and political power but just want more of both.
To these individuals, does it really matter which political party is in office, as long as that party plays by the same rules that perpetuate their wealth and power? And does it really matter to a party whether it wins or loses elections because, as long as it plays by those rules, the large political contributions will keep rolling in?
Take healthcare. Unaffordable healthcare is a major issue for the 3/4 Americans who worry they won’t be able to afford to pay their medical bills if they get sick.
For decades, physicians and healthcare experts have been pushing for real reform of our broken health insurance system. With good reason. It doesn’t do the two main things any decent system should do—cover everyone; be affordable. The system should be a public good—where the needs of the American people come first. Instead, it’s based on the profit needs of the for-profit American health insurance industry, which has a fiduciary duty to its shareholders, not the health of its enrollees.
We, the People get this. In the wake of the widely-publicized recent shooting of a major health insurance corporation CEO, a Gallup poll reported support for a government-run health insurance system at 62%. A 2019 poll revealed support for a Canadian-style single payer system of health insurance known as Medicare for All at 69%.
But—playing by the rules of the 0.1%—most Washington politicians oppose it.
Rather than resolving major issues such as wealth and power inequality, or healthcare, the ones most voters might agree on, many of our political leaders would rather fight about the cultural issues that divide us. It’s a divide and conquer strategy, and it prevents real change.
The bottom line? Real change is not likely to occur, at least not anytime soon. That’s how our system works. Or doesn’t work. If you’re one of the 3/4 Americans who worry about their medical bills, good luck. Unlike the top 0.1%, you’ll need it.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”