Yes. America is in a second gilded age. The phrase “Gilded Age” was coined by Mark Twain, effectively summarizing America’s state in the late 19 century; the façade of a land of opportunity, but really a land of inopportunity. While America was indeed a land of opportunity, rapid economic growth, and class mobility, the people who were able to achieve this were not the immigrants coming into America at the time. Instead, they were people who had already settled down in America, and were able to exploit the immigrant labor to their advantage due to their prior establishment.
Today, much like in the gilded age, the higher class in America keeps gaining wealth and capital, while the middle class is disappearing and the lower class has no movement. On a business level, companies and their CEOs are making more money than ever, but the workers make no gains at all. Companies are more concerned with the value of their stock than the well- being of their workers, and reap bonuses for themselves whenever they can. For example, while Hostess, the company that makes Twinkies was liquidating their company and laying off 15,000 workers after going bankrupt, the company never cut the CEO’s pay and even rewarded the CEO with $1.75 million in bonuses despite the bankruptcy of Hostess. Even before Hostess laid off 15,000 workers, they cut the wages of their workers and gave the savings to the CEO. This is proof that America still has the corruption it was notorious for during the gilded age.
Even though America’s percentage of families living below the poverty line is lower than during the gilded age, America is in a worse situation than it used to be. During the gilded age 92% of families lived below the poverty line, and today 15% of families live below the poverty line. Even though 15% is less than 92%, 15% of America today is much larger than 92% of America back then. Today, 15% is 48 million Americans, while back then, 92% of Americans was only 11 million people. This is not an improvement to American society, and 15% could be lower. Every day, because of the gilded age America is in currently, 48 million Americans struggle to make ends meet, and 48 million Americans have to worry about their next meal while the wealthy upper class live extravagant lifestyles and capitalize on the desperate lower class.
Indeed America has improved in some ways, such as regulations that prevent business from having the horrid working conditions of the gilded age, a minimum wage requirement, and fair treatment, which has lowered class mobility because there is less of an opportunity to exploit workers. Also, American manufacturing is usually a decent job with decent pay as long as companies follow the laws. However, these regulations are not often enforced, for there are only so many inspectors to inspect factories, and illegal immigrants coming from Mexico are not protected by the government. Because of this, illegal immigrants from Mexico undergo the same treatments that immigrants endured during the gilded age. The only difference is that the illegal immigrants have replaced the American workers.
America is in a second gilded age because of capitalism and selfishness. People became Robber Barons usually not by playing everything fairly, and instead by exploiting opportunities such as cheap labor and no government regulations. Essentially, Robber Barons would pave their own path to wealth, while disregarding the results of their demands. An example of this is Henry Frick, a businessman who created an exclusive club for the wealthy on the shore of a manmade lake. In order to build the lake, Frick had to construct a dam to keep water from flooding into the nearby Carnegie steel company town, but the problem was that the dam that Frick built was made extremely poorly. Frick refused to listen to the pleas of the town’s officials, and as a result, the dam eventually collapsed and instantly killed 2,000 people and moved houses and debris hundreds of miles. The flood could have been prevented, but because of the selfish actions of Frick, 2,000 people died indirectly because of him. Since America is in a second gilded age, and if it continues to be similar to the original gilded age, in the near future, there is a possibility that since America is experiencing a second gilded age, America may experience a second progressive era.
