What a new 'gilded age' may bring

By David R. Francis

It's an odd phenomenon. Before Memorial Day in May, the Senate Republican leadership plans to have a go at repealing or minimizing the estate tax - the "death tax," as they like to call it. Yet economist after economist note that the only families likely to benefit are billionaires and multimillionaires, and that both income and wealth in the United States are increasingly being concentrated at the top.

Some warn that by its actions, Washington is contributing to an economic climate that is leading to less tolerance, greater xenophobia, and more inequality in political representation.

The richest 1 percent of Americans now get about 15 percent of total US income, close to the 18 percent the same small group had in 1913. In a way, the days of the robber barons, the tycoons, and the Gilded Age are back - after the Great Depression, World Wars I and II, and progressive taxation had trimmed their share to 8 percent in 1963.

In contrast, the vast majority of American incomes have not kept up with inflation for the past six years.

"It's very troubling," says Benjamin Friedman, a Harvard University economist. "Inequality by some measures is very high by historical standards."

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