In Tuesday’s election, San Franciscans largely followed their Mayor’s advice and voted for the big-money-backed candidates, while voting down new taxes on billionaires. And while our Mayor is a billionaire, backed by other billionaires, it should be said that he is also well-liked by most San Franciscans. So it’s not a big surprise that Lurie’s allies Stephen Sherrill and Alan Wong won their districts, that the Lurie-supported big earthquake bond (prop A) passed, while the “Overpaid CEO Tax” (prop D) was shot down.
Mayor Lurie’s team also got Phil Kim for school board president and Phoebe Maffei for judge. San Francisco, like the rest of the country it seems, is full steam ahead into its second Gilded Age, a wondrous time where the wealthiest 1% control most of the cash, and the politics to boot.
That probably means nothing bad will happen…right?
“Bosses of the Senate”. By Joseph Keppler, January 23, 1889.
Today, the wealthiest 1% hold about $55 trillion in assets — roughly equal to the wealth held by the entire bottom 90% of Americans combined. And the trend is only increasing. Economist Gabriel Zucman notes that the top 0.00001% (the top 18 to 20 American families) now hold a larger percentage of the nation's total wealth (over 1.3%) than the titans of the Gilded Age (around 0.85%)
America’s first Gilded Age (spanning the 1870s to the late 1890s) was an era of rapid industrial growth that transformed the United States. In those days, the country and its government were largely controlled by steel magnates like Andrew Carnegie, oil tycoons like Rockefeller, and big bankers like J.P. Morgan. The fellas we now refer to as “robber barons”.
Pulling the country’s strings behind famously corrupt Presidents like Grant, Hayes, and Arthur. Writer Mark Twain coined the term “The Gilded Age” to satirize the era of glittering wealth for the few, which masked widespread poverty, political corruption, and deep social inequality. The ‘titans of industry’ concentrated power, bought any legislation they needed, and stood on the backs of the masses, who were made to tread water in a river of industrial sludge and terrible wages.
“Protectors of our Industries” by Bernhard Gillam, 1883.
Today, we have tech entrepreneur Musk, retail monopolizing Bezos, and AI enthusiast Altman, with easily the most corrupt President in US history (and it’s not even close), DJ Trump. The amount of self-enrichment Trump has perpetrated in just one year of office would make even the fellas in Tammany Hall blush. Today’s era is one of rapid technological growth, with AI-linked stocks accounting for roughly 35% to 45% of the total market capitalization of the S&P 500.
That probably means nothing bad will happen…right?
So how did the first Gilded Age end? Well, a combination of organized labor, violent worker strikes, and the election of uncorruptable politicians like Theodor Roosevelt were all required to stop the ever-increasing concentration of unelected wealth and power.
Let’s hope our Mayor Lurie and our next President are more like a Teddy Roosevelt (1901- 1909), an extremely hard-working rich kid who eventually made enemies with the billionaire class that made him, by forcing through anti-trust legislation to break the monopolies, creating labor and safety laws to protect the working class, and creating public spaces like the National Parks so that ALL Americans could benefit from our national treasures.
(Sidenote: Let’s also hope our Mayor Lurie and our next POTUS do all these things without an invasion of Cuba and an addiction to big game hunting.)
