| Second Gilded Age | |
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| Late 20th century – Current | |
 TheEast Wing of theWhite House was demolished in October 2025. | |
| Location | United States |
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TheSecond Gilded Age is a proposed time period ofUnited States history said to have begun between the 1980s and 2010s and continued up to the present. The Second Gilded Age is so named for its resemblance to theFirst Gilded Age of the 1870s to 1890s, a period marked bylaissez-fairecapitalism,political corruption, andwealth inequality. Historians disagree over what exact time period constitutes the Second Gilded Age, while others argue that no such period exists.
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The Second Gilded Age has been proposed several times, starting in the late 20th century. Proposed start times include thejunk bonds scandal in the 1980s, thedot-com bubble of the 1990s, thecollateralized debt obligations of the 2000s, and the1 percent of the 2010s. These proposals largely agree that wealth inequality and political corruption are as rampant as in the First Gilded Age, due in part to the implementation ofneoliberal policies. Other proposals argue thatrace relations andcivil rights comparisons are more apparent.[1][2][3]
Other authors dispute the characterization, arguing the similarities to the First Gilded Age are merely surface level. These authors claim that the underlying causes of the Second Gilded Age differ from those of the First Gilded Age, and thus the underlying solutions must differ as well.[1][3]
Economists and historians often citeshareholder primacy as one of the main factors of the Second Gilded Age. Shareholder primacy has been criticized for putting the interests of corporate owners over the needs of workers.[4]
Regarding wealth distribution specifically, some economists and historians have attributed the rise in inequality to theadoption of neoliberal policies in the United States. These policies oversaw deregulation and arevised income tax code, with significantly lower taxes on top earners. Between 1985 and 2005, the top 1% of earners doubled their share of wealth to 80% as a result of these policies.[5]
The Second Gilded Age has seen an increase in wealth inequality similar to that of the Gilded Age. In 1917, the top 10% of Americans held 80% of the wealth share.[6] In 2022, the top 10% of American families held 69% of the wealth share.[7] According toHenry Giroux, the United States has entered a Second Gilded Age "more savage and anti-democratic than its predecessor" as a result of the implementation ofneoliberalism and contemporarymarket fundamentalism.[2]
Many authors draw comparisons between the obscene fortunes of Gilded Age figures such asWilliam Randolph Hearst and Second Gilded Age figures such asElon Musk, both men who took control of media empires to push political agendas. Where Hearst took control of newspapers, Musk took control of the platform formerly known asTwitter. Hearst and Musk have both been criticized for using their newly acquired empires to spread misinformation andantisemitism.[8]
The Gilded Age was a time of rampant political corruption, and many authors liken it to the corruption of the modern day. "Bailout billionaires" have been accused of purchasing politicians and usingdark money andsuper PACs to buy elections.[1]
In his farewell address, U.S. PresidentJoe Biden warned that an emerging Americanoligarchy andtech–industrial complex posed risks to America in whatPolitico described as "echoingRoosevelt's language in calling out the 'robber barons' of a new dystopian Gilded Age."[9][10] These comments were made in the context of several tech billionaires who made large donations to the2024 presidential campaign of Donald Trump and hissecond inauguration. It also came during surging stock prices of "The Magnificent Seven," a group of tech companies whose combined value rose 46% in 2024, vastly beating theS&P 500 share index.[11]
Some authors have pointed out similarities between the loss of civil rights after theReconstruction Era and the stripping of civil rights in the modern day. TheSupreme Court gutted theCivil Rights Act of 1866 in 1883, just as it gutted sections of theVoting Rights Act of 1965 in 2013, in both cases helping to undermine Black Americans of the right to vote. While the legal discrimination of Jim Crow has been overturned, still today, a de facto racist criminal justice system overlooks or enables police racial discrimination.[1] In 2025, President Donald Trump ended federaldiversity, equity, and inclusion programs.[12]
Xenophobia continued to gain legal protections in the First Gilded Age, finally culminating in theChinese Exclusion Act in 1882, fully banning immigration from most ofEast andSouth Asia until being overturned during the civil rights era. This approach has been compared toObama,Trump, andBiden era policies on immigration through theU.S.–Mexico border such asRemain in Mexico. Trump further institutedtravel bans from 15 countries, until they were revoked by Biden.[1] Trump's second administration has overseen mass deportations,[13] while the Supreme Court ruled thatimmigration agents inCalifornia could continue to stop and detain people based on characteristics such as race, language spoken, and occupation.[14]
According toThe New Hampshire Gazette, the response from more radical elements of the general public to the excesses of the First Gilded Age are similar to what is emerging in the Second Gilded Age with thekilling of Brian Thompson, in particular theanarchist tradition ofpropaganda of the deed.[15]
By contrast, labor historian Steve Fraser emphasized in his 2015 bookThe Age of Acquiescence that there has been a marked decline in political resistance during the Second Gilded Age. In aNew York Times review of Fraser's book,Naomi Klein summarizes the author's thesis:
What fueled the resistance to the first Gilded Age, [Fraser] argues, was the fact that many Americans had a recent memory of a different kind of economic system, whether in America or back in Europe. Many at the forefront of the resistance were actively fighting to protect a way of life, whether it was the family farm that was being lost to predatory creditors or small-scale artisanal businesses being wiped out by industrial capitalism. Having known something different from their grim present, they were capable of imagining – and fighting for – a radically better future. It is this imaginative capacity that is missing from our second Gilded Age.[16]
Some authors argue that the Second Gilded Age is misnamed, and that these comparisons are unfounded or only surface-level.[1]
The First Gilded Age coincided with America'sSecond Industrial Revolution, as America moved from the use of coal to being powered by oil, thanks in large part to the efforts ofcaptains of industry such asJohn D. Rockefeller andHenry Ford. Some authors have argued that the Second Gilded Age remains a time ofdeindustrialization, asworking-class wages continue to fall and workers turn to thegig economy.[1]
HistorianJulie Greene argues that while the First Gilded Age and Second Gilded Age "share certain important characteristics, these are profoundly different historical moments."[3] She says that while during the First Gilded Age there were serious attempts to mitigate the worst excesses of the new industrial capitalism of the time, the Second Gilded Age has seen almost the exact opposite, "as capitalists and their ideological and political supporters push to see how far they can go to ensure the unchallenged hegemony of corporate and property rights."[3] She attributes this to several factors, including theneoliberal era starting in the 1970s, the collapse of theSoviet Union, and thereform and opening up in China. Greene argues that the Soviet collapse and Chinese liberalization represented the collapse of the two biggest alternatives to capitalism. In turn, this made it easier for employers to allow fundamental rights to disappear, as workers no longer felt that they had real alternatives. She concludes ultimately that "the slow climb toward a more humane capitalism and the rapid descent away from it constitute two very different experiences."[3]
Any 19th century anarchist would immediately recognize Brian Thompson's killing as a case of what's called 'propaganda of the deed.' These were violent acts meant to show the broader public that, while the prevailing political and economic systems might have been powerful and omnipresent, they were not omnipotent.
