The Gilded Age....Round 2?

I have chosen for my last personal blog post to write about one of the very first topics we discussed in our class-The Gilded Age.

The golden gleam of the gilded surface hides the cheapness of the metal underneath

This phrase coined by Mark Twain primarily was used to describe the time period of the late 19th century in America.   It was a time of new money, big money and rapid economic growth, it was a time after the civil war, there were technology advances, new transportation, corporations, increased wages, mass communication-Life was Good!... At least that is what people were telling themselves, Mark Twain used this term to make fun of the people's and the times ostentatious display.  People were living the good life of high society while completely ignoring deep problems, farmers were going bankrupt, major racism and immigration problems existed, the super rich"Robber Barons" who schemed and cheated to make their mark lorded their money and exploited the middle class and it was overall an era of greed, guile, and corruption.   The sparkly surface hid this, but it existed and after the shiny sparkle wore away, the gilded age ended in the panic of 1983 and a  deep depression.

       I thought about this a lot after I first heard why it was called the Gilded Age, and I caught myself wondering if this time we have been living in could be called The Gilded Age yet again.  Right before this economic recession hit us in America a couple years ago, times were good.   This is an era of materialism, people feel the need to have everything and let everyone know it, huge mansion houses are built, a time of mass communication in the forms of movies, television, the glitz and glam of Hollywood, people buy cars that you can only dream about, corporations are making millions, individuals are making millions, you can go to a store and buy anything you desire, heck you can go online and buy anything you desire.  New technology like the ipod, ipad, iphone, are getting smaller and better and faster, everything you need is at your fingertips. Stores and restaurants everywhere you look, no one even needs to look at price tags, kids are getting an education, having the time of their lives in college-Again life is good!


Maybe the truth is...
Those mansions that people live in will never ever be paid off, abandoned and foreclosed, being sold by the bank now for a sixteenth of what it cost.
Those cars were bought on credit cards and consumer debt has never been higher-at the end of 2008, right before the recession really hit, consumer debt was at 2.5 trillion dollars.
Corporations are just as bad as robber barons and exploit their workers, find loopholes in taxes and kill the small business
People could get rich for selling drugs, you could make millions by cheating, gambling, laundering, however you can.
Hollywood movie stars could feed whole countries with the money they make on one movie, with the money they pay for one fancy necklace they could pay off 10 families homes.
New technology is making us slaves to the internet, destroying family time, handwriting and good conversation
Business and restaurants are going under everyday.
Unemployment has never been higher, people are losing their homes, their jobs.


This could very well be another gilded age-just with credit cards!
Of course, so much good still exists in the world, but I think sometimes we can get so caught up in buying new things, doing what we want when we want, dreaming of the day we are rich, but in the meantime making everyone think we are by going to fancy restaurants, buying fancy cars and furniture and basically just faking it.
Our Gilded Age has ended in a recession, a really bad one, but even then we like to ignore that, pretend that it will be over any day now, pretend that there aren't families without incomes and soon without places to live.  
We ignore the inconvenient truths because faking it is better and way easier!


I don't know, this analysis might be way off, I might be over thinking this, but seriously if Mark Twain thought times were an ostentatious display then...what would he say THIS IS?!