American Dynasties and the Fall of the Republic

This Story in The Economist is the latest symptom that the American Republic is once again in trouble. The problem is a dramatic increase in inequality and a corresponding decrease in social mobility. Some quotes:

This is not the first time that America has looked as if it was about to succumb to what might be termed the British temptation. America witnessed a similar widening of the income gap in the Gilded Age. It also witnessed the formation of a British-style ruling class. The robber barons of the late 19th century sent their children to private boarding schools and made sure that they married the daughters of the old elite, preferably from across the Atlantic. Politics fell into the hands of the members of a limited circle—so much so that the Senate was known as the millionaires' club.

Yet the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a concerted attempt to prevent America from degenerating into a class-based society.


Unfortunately, the last 25-50 years has seen much of the result undone, partly by the increasing dynastic tendencies in our politics, but mainly by the regressive tax changes of Reagan and Bush.

The Republicans, by getting rid of inheritance tax, seem hell-bent on ignoring Teddy Roosevelt's warnings about the dangers of a hereditary aristocracy. The Democrats are more interested in preferment for minorities than building ladders of opportunity for all.



Left to their own devices, the Republicans will do their best to turn our republic into an oligarchy. The social security fight will be the next place to resist this trend and fight for the republic. We need to insist that the huge deficits run up by tax cuts for the rich should be paid off by them, not by social security recipients.

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