This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Many of
us have heard the current period referred to as a second gilded
age. Or we’ve seen the current inequality in wealth in the
United States compared to that of 1929. But we have not all
given sufficient thought to what ended the first gilded age,
what created greater equality, what created the reality behind
that category our politicians now endlessly pretend we are all
in: the middle class. We have a sense of what went wrong at the
turn of each century, but what went right in between? This is
the theme of Sam Pizzigati’s new book, The Rich Don’t Always
Win: The Forgotten Triumph Over Plutocracy That Created the
American Middle Class, 1900-1970. I take away three primary
answers short enough to include in a brief summary. First, we
taxed the riches right out from under the rich people. Second,
we empowered labor unions. And third — and this one came first
chronologically as well as logically — we developed a culture
that saw it as absolutely necess