Eugene Robinson’s Gilded-Age Misconceptions
Note 1: Watch my take on Trump’ inauguration on this week’s Trump Watch.
Note 2: We are putting together a luncheon get-together in downtown Boston after the oral arguments in Ian Freeman’s appeal. Wednesday, Feb. 5. Details forthcoming.
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Longtime Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson’s new article about a “second Gilded Age” in America gets it wrong. He writes: “In the first Gilded Age, a few tycoons amassed unimaginable riches — men such as John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt and J.P. Morgan. With their great wealth came great power and influence. When they spoke, presidents listened. On Monday, as a billionaire reassumes the nation’s highest office, in attendance will be the three wealthiest human beings on the planet, according to the Forbes and Bloomberg lists of billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos (who owns The Post) and Mark Zuckerberg.”
While those facts are technically correct, where Robinson goes wrong is in failing to recognize that America had a totally different economic and political system in the Gilded Age period that it now has.
Back then, the powers of the federal government were relatively few and limited. Therefore, people who were making large amounts of money were largely doing so under the principles of a genuine free market — that is, by providing goods and services that other people wanted and were willing to pay for. The federal government had virtually no power to do good things for people or bad things to people. Thus, it didn’t make a big difference if presidents listened or not.
Today, things are totally different. Many Americans make vast amounts of money through the connections, contracts, and influence they have with the welfare-warfare-state/regulated-economy way of life — that is, through the vast overwhelming power of the federal government to do good things for people and bad things to people. This is especially true for those who benefit, either directly or indirectly, from the enormous largess that is pumped into the “defense” industry.
Let’s examine some of the principles of the Gilded Age to see how differently Americans back then thought in comparison to how Americans today think:
1. No income tax, income tax returns, or IRS. Everyone kept 100 percent of what he earned. There was nothing the feds could d
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