We’re not in a new Gilded Age in America: inequality is now far worse

‘Where previous figures like Carnegie at least seeded universities and libraries, we now have, as Dartmouth’s Brooke Harrington noted, “noblesse without the oblige”.’ Photograph: AP

For many, the era of US history that most resembles contemporary America is easy to identify: the Gilded Age.

It is, in certain ways, an apt comparison. Like modern America, the Gilded Age saw a small number of men tower over US politics and industry alike. Rising atop a swell of wealth inequality, figures like Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller mixed private interests with public policy, opening doors in Washington and beyond with ease. Their model is a clear precedent for figures such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison and more.