Letter from Ron Bishop

What Does ‘Golden Age’ Portend?

Many of us have scoffed at our president’s claims that we are living in a new Golden Age, and part of me hates to break in like this, but I think his claims may be supported by history. Our country’s other broadly recognized “golden age” peaked in 1929, just before the Great Depression, with record levels of government corruption and wealth inequality.

For those of us who think conditions for working Americans can’t get much worse, history offers a cruel reminder if we compare these days with 1929. Today, the richest 1 percent of Americans own about 32 percent of our country’s wealth, while the bottom 50 percent own about 2 percent. In 1929, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans owned about 47 percent of all assets, while the bottom 50 percent had 0 percent. (Most families’ debts canceled their assets. And that was before the Great Depression.)

This administration’s aim appears to be keeping the current drive alive until, once again, the richest Americans control everything and the majority have nothing. However, there is something that might stand in their way: democracy. Many citizens seem to believe that keeping the current drive alive is not in their best interests. And some of our technology leaders who stand to lose influence if we change direction are pushing back—hard.

At the height of more than 3,000 “No Kings: Vote Early” events last Saturday (including the one we attended in Oneonta), Meta took down the No Kings organizing page on Instagram for about four hours. This action was eerily like Meta’s restriction of Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s campaign Instagram pages last Friday, where users were redirected to his opponent’s page. (Meta claimed honest mistakes in both cases.)

Please help secure this year’s election by voting early, with or without the support of social media platforms.

Ron Bishop
Cooperstown