11.02.08
Gilded ages, social darwinism
Obama, the man who would be Roosevelt The right says he is a socialist and un-American – which is the very thing that appeals to new voters
America has been here before. In the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, the explosion of wealth and inequality that accompanied industrialisation was justified by the doctrine of social Darwinism and the belief that unregulated markets were necessary to allow the fittest and most talented to rise to the top. Proposals to modify market outcomes using policies of redistribution and public intervention were dismissed as a misguided attempts to rearrange the natural order of life.
Horror at the hardship caused by laissez-faire led to demands for public regulation and the introduction of a progressive income tax. But it was the Great Depression of the 1930s that transformed the political landscape. With a quarter of Americans out of work, it became less plausible to equate economic hardship with personal failure. The experience of poverty was too widespread and the need for government support too urgent. The response was President Roosevelt’s New Deal of state welfare and economic intervention.