There was an article in today’s New York Times about the way the U.S. president is brazenly trying to usher in a new Gilded Age. That was the last time in U.S. history when there was no real middle class – mostly just very wealthy people and the desperately poor people who served their needs, hoping for crumbs and handouts in return. The median age of death in the U.S. was 45, and a disturbingly large proportion of children died before they turned 5 (but not the children of the rich).
The article pointed out that the president is probably enjoying the current miniseries about the Gilded Age, with its focus on the fabulous life of the upper class. But unlike the TV show, which is a fantasy, the economic choices being made by the current administration are heading us toward a repeat of the real thing: Turning our nation into a playground for the rich. For most Americans these policies, if allowed to continue, will usher in a time of darkness, despair, decline in health benefits and other services, and learning to live as a permanent underclass.
In his headlong rush to create a new Gilded Age, the U.S. president seems to essentially be modeling himself on Lonesome Rhodes, the main character in the excellent film “A Face in the Crowd” — a man who rises politically by speaking in folksy tones, while actually harboring deep contempt for anyone who is not possessed of power and privilege.
More tomorrow.