Comment by Noaidi
4 hours ago
The separation of wealth during the Gilded age was caused by the same thing it is caused by today: rapid industrialization. This rapid industrialization began when the US was off the gold standard during the civil war. The 1920's gilded age was fueled by fiat money, the greenback.
The great depression was triggered in part by imbalanced gold flows when we returned to gold back currencies.
https://explaininghistory.org/2025/06/12/golden-fetters-the-...
We are essentially replaying the greenback inflation of the 1860's and have been doing it since 1971.
> The 1920's gilded age was fueled by fiat money, the greenback.
So-called fiat money didn't become a thing until after FDR became president, which was after 1932.
I think at this point you should read a bit more about the antebellum period.
> Greenbacks … a form of fiat money
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenback_(1860s_money)
From your linked article.
” The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 precipitated a U.S. recession, but it was the gold standard that converted this into a worldwide depression. With currencies locked to gold, there was little scope to ease monetary conditions. When the U.S. economy slumped, its import demand plummeted and it exported deflation to the rest of the world. Gold-standard countries could not respond by cutting interest rates or letting their currencies depreciate to stimulate exports – their priority was to defend the peg. As a result, economic downturns spread rapidly.”
It didn’t start with gold standard. It started with the issuance of greenbacks during the Civil War. If they never issued greenbacks during the Civil War, there would not have been an issue with going back on the gold standard.
Sorry. This is quixotic revisionism. What do you think happens during a war? Both the Union and the Confederacy were printing paper money like there is no tomorrow. In the case of the Confederacy, it was literally true.
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> The separation of wealth during the Gilded age was caused by the same thing it is caused by today: rapid industrialization.
What "rapid industrialization" is happening today?
Have you lived through the late 90s big tech boom or the current AI boom?
> Have you lived through the late 90s big tech boom or the current AI boom?
Inequality (at least in the US) started growing in the 1980s, after Reagan got elected. For causes I'd start with these:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics
> The 1920's gilded age was fueled by fiat money, the greenback.
Cite? I'm pretty sure that the 1920s, $20 was literally a gold coin of a certain size.