Gilded Age - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In American history, the "Gilded Age" refers to unprecedented wealth polarization in the U.S. and wasteful displays of wealth and excessive opulence of America's upper-class during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, from the 1870s to the 1890s. The wealth polarization derived from industrial and population expansion. Industrialization during this era saw unusually rapid growth of railroads, small factories, banks, stores, mines and other enterprises and dramatic expansion into highly fertile western farmlands. Ethnic diversity increased through immigration. Steamship and railroad companies promoted immigration by emphasizing the availability of jobs and farmland. The era overlaps with Reconstruction (which ended in 1877) and includes the Panic of 1873.
And it ended with the second world war, when all the resources of the state had to be mobilized. As a matter of course, these resources were in the hands of a small elite, so the elite had to pay for it all, not because the government was for equality but because they took the resources from the people who had them.
Another parallell, with peak oil and the possibility of massive costly state programs on the horizon. The state will get the money from the people who have money, no matter who they are... Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
The state will get the money from the people who have money, no matter who they are...
The State won't touch existing money - it will create new money, one way or another.
When has a war ever been prevented because it could not be "afforded" "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
