RETURN OF THE ROBBER BARONS
“We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a
few, but we can’t have both.” – Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
Born in 1856, Brandeis lived through the “Gilded Age” and the “Roaring 20’s.” He saw the unethical
practices, the exploitation of working people, and the corruption of politicians brought on by the
fabulously wealthy, the “Robber Barons” of that age. Brandeis saw how democracy was destroyed by
gross inequality, he saw how the rich were able to buy and sell “elected” officials, how they could
ensure policies and legislation that favored them.
Brandeis also lived through the Great Depression brought on by a casino financial industry and a
manipulated stock market which collapsed overnight. He saw thousands of families lose everything they
had to corrupt banks. He saw the “hobos” begging at back doors for a sandwich and scouring the
country for any kind of work to support their families. Brandeis also saw how great inequality and the
poverty it caused undermined the very fabric of society, turned people against one another and blinded
them to the real cause of their struggles.
But Brandeis then witnessed people awakening, coming together to support one another, to look out for
their neighbor. He saw the growth of labor unions giving working Americans the power to stand against
rapacious corporations and the greed of the “Robber Barons.” Brandeis saw working people unite to
elect politicians of high integrity. He saw the enactment of legislation like the Glass-Stegall Act which
separated savings banks from the reckless speculation of investment banks. He saw the creation of the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation which further protected the savings of average people. He saw
the establishment of the Social Security Administration which helped ensure that elderly Americans
wouldn’t end their days in abject poverty. Perhaps most importantly, Brandeis saw the enactment of
high taxation on the wealthy designed to prevent them from ever again replacing our democracy with
rule by the rich, with oligarchy/plutocracy.
Justice Brandeis died in 1941 so he didn’t witness the years after World War II when the struggles of
working Americans following the Great Depression came to fruition. Those of us born in the late 30’s
and the 40’s remember well the general prosperity for working people in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Those
years saw the greatest growth of a secure middle class in human history.
Things weren’t perfect of course. There was racism and minorities still struggled. But for most average
Americans this truly was a time of the fabled “American Dream.” Home ownership was expected.
Healthcare was affordable – often run as non-profits by the major religious organizations. Public
education was free. Those who wished to pursue higher education could do so without going deeply
into debt. We built publicly funded nursing care facilities for the elderly because this is what a decent,
caring society does, knowing that but for luck, any of us may need help as we age. We built publicly
funded infrastructure in general because we knew we were all beneficiaries.
Tragically, the forces of greed never rest. By the late 70’s many of those who had fought for a better,
more egalitarian society following the Depression had passed on. Lessons were forgotten. Ronald
Reagan was elected president and the “great dissembling” began. Contrary to all the evidence, we were
told “Government isn’t the solution to the problem, government is the problem.” We were told
government could do nothing right and that only private business and industry were “efficient.” We
heard that tax cuts for the wealthy would benefit us all, that the rich knew how to get things done, that
the money would “trickle down” rather than, the obvious and now well documented, gush up. We were
told the regulations that were created to put an end to the corruption of the “Robber Barons” and allow
the wealth to benefit all Americans were no good, that the regulations were preventing “growth.” We
were fed endless lies, created by the rich, to enrich the rich.
Lest one think this “great dissembling” was just a partisan, a Republican, undertaking, it was Bill Clinton
who signed the death certificate for the Glass-Stegall Act which led directly to the economic collapse in
2007-08. It was Clinton who ended our long-established welfare system. It was Clinton who enabled
great increases in incarceration rates. It was Clinton who led the Democratic party to abandon working
Americans in favor of Wall Street.
Then came George W. Bush who signed off on huge tax cuts for the rich. We heard more “trickle down”
and “the rising tide would raise all boats.” Except, of course, for the thousands upon thousands that
sank. And it was Bush that led us into the endless wars based on endless lies that did nothing to defend
America, but everything to enrich the already fabulously rich heads of the
Military/Industrial/Congressional Complex.
Next, we come to Barak Obama, and if ever a president was elected with a great, popular mandate to
clean up the moral rot that was (is) Washington/Wall Street, it was he. But in an unfathomable tragedy
of historic proportions, Obama bailed out the criminal syndicate of Wall Street Banks and threw working
Americans to the wolves. The CEO’s of J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, City bank, and others received
multi-million dollar bonuses for their crimes, while their victims, the millions of Americans who were
conned into bad mortgages, were tossed out of their homes. In the overall picture, it was Clinton,
Obama, and the Wall Street friendly Democratic National “Leadership” that elected Donald Trump.
People were desperate in 2016, and they are even more desperate in 2024. And should anyone think
that a President Trump is the savior of America, almost all of his nominees for high office and cabinet
positions are billionaires – oligarchy on steroids. “We the people” have no friends in high places.
This process of recreating the modern version of the “Robber Barons,” the billionaire class, is tearing our
nation and our society to shreds. It risks being overly simplistic, but everything from strapped city and
county budgets, to growing homelessness and social problems, to the “privatization cults” that have
infested our county boards, city councils and school boards telling us it isn’t the public’s responsibility to
care about one another, that nursing homes for the elderly, schools for our kids, and our water utilities
etc., must be sold off to wealthy “investors” while seniors, children, and we the people become profit
mechanisms, are the product of gross, historic, inequality.
America is once again at the mercy of “Robber Barons.” It isn’t immigrants or the struggling poor that
cause our problems. We, as average, caring Americans, regardless of our political bent or affiliation,
desperately need to come together and begin directing our collective energy and power against the real
threat to a decent life for ourselves, our kids, and our grandkids. Our ancestors from the Great
Depression have given us the map. For the sake of all we hold near and dear, billionaires must be taxed
out of existence. They are a plague on America, a plague on all humanity.
*photo credit: Inequality Media
Please take 6 minutes to watch Robert Reich address the inequality crisis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmq7QqqY4vo