#gildedage

𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗗𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀, 𝟭𝟴𝟲𝟬𝘀–𝟭𝟵𝟱𝟬𝘀: 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘫𝘦 𝘥𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘻𝘢 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘰

Many people have compared our current era to the Gilded Age. But that analogy is deeply unfair to the Gilded Age. Like the robber barons of yore, today’s oligarchs are immensely wealthy — even wealthier, relative to the economy as a whole, than their predecessors. And extreme wealth corrupts our democracy. But the corruption is deeper and more destructive now than it was then: The mitigating factors that once put some brakes on the harm done by excessive wealth concentration are now mostly gone.