6 ms·

It’s the second gilded age Hopefully this one will pass, just as the first did

rglover 1mo ago
All things pass. The question is what the fallout will look like for everyone who doesn't have their hand in the cookie jar.
- Henchman21 1mo ago
  I'm more interested in what happens to those with their hands in. They need to lose those hands.
  - Ifkaluva 1mo ago
    “Thieves of private property pass their lives in chains. Thieves of public property, in riches and luxury”. —Cato the Elder
mcmcmc 1mo ago
The Gilded Age didn’t just “pass”. It was ended by strong unions and antitrust legislation (and enforcement). Passivity will kill us if we let the oligarchs have their way. Hope is not a plan. Appeasement will have no more success than it did in WWII.
- malfist 1mo ago
  The long arm of history bends towards progress. Not because progress happens spontaneously, but because people bend it
- TheOtherHobbes 1mo ago
  The default oligarch orientation is to treat workers as slaves to the maximum possible extent. Firefights with guns, hand-to-hand violence, and real deaths were needed to give unions the leverage they had. For some reason this history isn't taught in schools.
  - mcmcmc 1mo ago
    Maybe not yours but it was taught at my mediocre public school. We definitely covered Fort Frick, the Pinkertons, the Haymarket bombing, formation of the IWW and AFL-CIO, etc. For some reason people just tend to not pay attention or remember anything from their high school history classes.
psadauskas 1mo ago
The first one passed with a lot of regular people losing their homes, their jobs, and even their lives. I wish just for once we could have the wealthy elites get their comeuppance without it also screwing over everyone else.
- fxd 1mo ago
  One way to have the biggest house on the block is make sure nobody else can build. Why spend the money to build the bigger house when you don’t really enjoy it anyway - when your only motivation is that nobody else’s house is as big.
- monknomo 1mo ago
  there were substantial crashes and booms during the gilded age as well, it wasn't uncommon to go bust and lose a house before the great depression. The panic of `73 is pretty comparable with the great depression, for example
ericmcer 1mo ago
My paranoid brain thinks the new "Every baby gets a $1000 investment account" is a lame effort on their part to keep it going. For an extremely low price tag they can give every child & parent skin in the game. For someone struggling seeing their kids account go up a $100 might compel them to support the bloated financial/banking industry now that they get a few drops from it.

All things pass. The question is what the fallout will look like for everyone who doesn't have their hand in the cookie jar.

Henchman21 1mo ago
I'm more interested in what happens to those with their hands in. They need to lose those hands.
- Ifkaluva 1mo ago
  “Thieves of private property pass their lives in chains. Thieves of public property, in riches and luxury”. —Cato the Elder

mcmcmc 1mo ago

The Gilded Age didn’t just “pass”. It was ended by strong unions and antitrust legislation (and enforcement). Passivity will kill us if we let the oligarchs have their way. Hope is not a plan. Appeasement will have no more success than it did in WWII.

malfist 1mo ago
The long arm of history bends towards progress. Not because progress happens spontaneously, but because people bend it
TheOtherHobbes 1mo ago
The default oligarch orientation is to treat workers as slaves to the maximum possible extent. Firefights with guns, hand-to-hand violence, and real deaths were needed to give unions the leverage they had. For some reason this history isn't taught in schools.
- mcmcmc 1mo ago
  Maybe not yours but it was taught at my mediocre public school. We definitely covered Fort Frick, the Pinkertons, the Haymarket bombing, formation of the IWW and AFL-CIO, etc. For some reason people just tend to not pay attention or remember anything from their high school history classes.

psadauskas 1mo ago

The first one passed with a lot of regular people losing their homes, their jobs, and even their lives. I wish just for once we could have the wealthy elites get their comeuppance without it also screwing over everyone else.

fxd 1mo ago
One way to have the biggest house on the block is make sure nobody else can build. Why spend the money to build the bigger house when you don’t really enjoy it anyway - when your only motivation is that nobody else’s house is as big.
monknomo 1mo ago
there were substantial crashes and booms during the gilded age as well, it wasn't uncommon to go bust and lose a house before the great depression. The panic of `73 is pretty comparable with the great depression, for example

ericmcer 1mo ago

My paranoid brain thinks the new "Every baby gets a $1000 investment account" is a lame effort on their part to keep it going. For an extremely low price tag they can give every child & parent skin in the game. For someone struggling seeing their kids account go up a $100 might compel them to support the bloated financial/banking industry now that they get a few drops from it.