A triumphant plutocracy has enslaved the vast body of our people"
August 25, 2018 5:14 PM   Subscribe

The Menace of Enormous Fortunes Income inequality, 1906.

"So, if present conditions continue, one looks ahead vainly for some brightening in the picture of our poverty and wealth, our misery and affluence, our luxury and want. Things will be worse, not better, and every year will show a more painful contrast between the few that have everything, and the many who lack everything. Ponder these words from that hard financial compendium of Waldron’s, already quoted (p. 102); — “Little wonder, then, that the rich are rapidly growing richer, when, but one-twentieth of the families, they are receiving one-third of the nation’s annual income and are able to absorb nearly two-thirds of the annual increase made in the wealth of the nation.” Think what that means to the poor!

What it means to the rich is that they will find it more and more difficult to spend their enormous incomes, and will set a faster and madder pace of luxury and extravagance. All the signs point that way, and, after all, what else can they do with their money? They cannot eat it or hang it around their necks (except some odd millions in trinkets), or buy seats in heaven with it. There is nothing to do but flaunt it before the nation in palaces and gorgeous fetes, in costly laces and plates of gold, in furious follies that seem to cry out;—“Se, we are rich, rich, rich, and you are poor.” Nor can any man say what will be the echo of that cry!"
posted by Miko (15 comments total) 28 users marked this as a favorite
 
"History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes," Mark Twain is supposed to have said...
posted by PhineasGage at 5:48 PM on August 25, 2018 [3 favorites]


A lot of the most vital and relevant political writing I've encounter recently seems to come from the early part of the 20th century.


Kinda cements the idea that the post-war era was just an interruption between gilded ages.
posted by The Whelk at 9:54 PM on August 25, 2018 [13 favorites]


We have had iron king's, railroad kings, copper kings, sugar kings and others, but there is one kind of king we have not had yet. A real king? Yes, for how long, pray, would this Republic stand against the aggressions of such a man, a great minded despot without conscience or bounds to his ambition, one in comparison to whom our Rockefellers and Morgans would seem like blundering beginners?

Already our millionaire magnates have begun to buy our courts and legislatures, to corrupt our cities, to debauch the public conscience. He would finish the work and do it thoroughly, he would make the laws, own the newspapers, subsidize the churches and colleges, mould public opinion, direct the machinery of justice, control the industries, the banks, the insurance companies, the conditions of labor; regulate supply and demand, fix prices, absorb profits, centralize everything, be everything.


Prognostication indeed!
posted by BlueHorse at 10:25 PM on August 25, 2018 [11 favorites]


One interesting thing about this is that the writer names nine enormously wealthy men —John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, E. IT. Harriman, George Gould, W. K. Vanderbilt, J. J. Hill, A. J. Cassatt, W. H. Moore and William Rockefeller – who controlled the railroads in the U.S., and 100 years later even those of us who study and write about American history probably would have a hard time even knowing the names of the last three.

Whereas Cassatt’s sister Mary, whose family tried to keep her away from a career as an artist, is well-remembered today because she actually created a body of work that is uplifting and beautiful. She didn’t just spend her time trying to accumulate, and hold onto, large piles of money.
posted by LeLiLo at 10:52 PM on August 25, 2018 [12 favorites]


I remember the name of W.H. Moore, as he was the father of Paul Moore Sr. and my Irish grandparents were servants on his estate outside of Morristown, NJ on what was called "Millionaire's Row." In the early days of the 20th century over a thousand people were employed on that one estate. It was the only work to be had. The estate had its own farm, race course, and golf course. As a child my father took me to see where his father had worked, and they had a huge barn full of beautiful shiny horse carriages of all sorts, their collection. The servants were mostly Irish and Italian immigrants, the Irish worked in the mansion and took care of horses, and the Italians worked outside in the gardens and did fine masonry work. They were poor, the rich were rich beyond belief. The Moores were fair employers, but those on other estates not so good. It was almost a serfdom system. The good that came out of it was Rev.Paul Moore Jr. who became an Episcopal priest and later Bishop of NY, who choose to start out in a poor parish in Jersey City. He was a truly good man, my father always admired him, and I met him when he was old, shortly before he passed away. I treasure the blessing he gave me.

It is frightening to see the huge gap between rich and poor coming back again, I fear for the world my grandchildren will inherit.
posted by mermayd at 5:18 AM on August 26, 2018 [9 favorites]


A second point is that no man has a right to demoralize his fellow men by setting them an example of extravagance and folly, by instilling in their hearts the seeds of envy and discontent, not to say hatred. Of course if our multi-millionaires insist on being mere amusement seekers, money flaunters, we cannot make them otherwise, but we can at least let them know how right minded citizens regard them — that is, as harmful and vicious influences, enemies of the State.

The "Me" generation certainly got rid of this sentiment in the United States, i think it is still around, but only is applied to african american sports players.
posted by eustatic at 9:09 AM on August 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


100 years later even those of us who study and write about American history probably would have a hard time even knowing the names of the last three.

look upon my works, ye mighty, then fasten thy zipper and drive on
posted by flabdablet at 10:04 AM on August 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


100 years later even those of us who study and write about American history probably would have a hard time even knowing the names of the last three.

Never mind the second and third tier rich folk. My great great uncle was a millionaire at about this time (white lead paint - seemed like a good idea at the time). Sold the company, and proceeded to lose the proceeds on bad investments. Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in one generation.

But back to the article - note the date - 1906. The following year gave Wall Street and the world the Panic of 1907. Forgotten history indeed, though songs were written. And sure enough, a hundred years later....
posted by BWA at 10:06 AM on August 26, 2018 [2 favorites]


Last November a Swiss bank - not exactly a Marxist outfit - referred to our time as the Second Gilded Age.

Wikipedia puts the original G.A. as "from the 1870s to about 1900."
posted by doctornemo at 1:19 PM on August 26, 2018


Kinda cements the idea that the post-war era was just an interruption between gilded ages. That's where Piketty and Saez have come down. The "great compression" (circa 1945-1980) was a weird historical blip.
posted by doctornemo at 1:22 PM on August 26, 2018 [2 favorites]


A cease fire in the class war as it was
posted by The Whelk at 1:29 PM on August 26, 2018 [2 favorites]


A great book on the uncommon nature of the post-WW II economy is An Extraordinary Time: The End of the Postwar Boom and the Return of the Ordinary Economy, by Marc Levinson, who also wrote The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger.
posted by PhineasGage at 3:28 PM on August 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


Thank you, PhineasGage.

Which reminds me to finally read Walter Scheidel's _The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century_.
posted by doctornemo at 5:08 AM on August 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


You can have billionaires or democracy but not both.
posted by zipadee at 12:37 PM on August 27, 2018


Just came across this excellent piece by the very smart Anand Giridharadas on the bullshit of billionaires.
posted by Miko at 6:06 PM on August 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


« Older The golden age of paleontology   |   ".. and let some of the bruise blood come out" Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments