Donald Trump And the Golden Age Part Three: All That Glitter’s Isn’t Gold
As Donald Trump declares this as “The Golden Age” the similarities to the “Gilded Age” become more apparent. One thing the “Gilded Age” taught is, “all that glitters is not gold.”
In 1897, McKinley championed the Dingle Act which reinstated tariffs on goods imported to the United States. As a Congressman from Ohio, McKinley had pressed and passed the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890. The act led to massive inflation, as the working class and the poor were saddled with rising prices as a result of the tariffs. The burden placed on the working class, resulted in the Republicans being voted out that fall in the 1890 elections, with the tariffs being repealed. Make no mistake, a tariff is a tax levied on consumers.
In 1901, McKinley was assassinated and the new century found industrialization spreading. To meet the need for workers, children began being pushed into the workplace. In 1900, of the 100,000 textile workers in the South, 25,000 were under the age of 16. By 1904, the number of children in the textile mills had risen to 50,000 with 20,000 of those being 12 or under. Work days were typically 12 hours, six days a week.
The South was not the only place children were pressed into the workplace, as glass bottle factories in the Midwest employed high numbers of children. When local populations of children were depleted, manufacturers turned to orphanages to find workers, relocating them from New York City to the Midwest to work in the factories. In cities such as New York, children sold newspapers and worked as messengers carrying notes across the city between businesses. From mines, to farms, children increasingly became a part of the national workforce late in the 19th century and into the 20th century.
As children increasingly became part of the workforce, they DID NOT attend school. Without the ability to read, write and do arithmetic, as more and more reached adulthood without the skills to win better jobs. As a result, poverty rates grew across the country. Real wages declined, resulting in a stalling economy.
From 1920-1929, union density in the United States would fall significantly. The United Mine Workers would see membership falling from 500,000 in 1920, to 75,000 by 1929. The AFL membership would decline from 5.1 million in 1920 to 3.4 million by 1929. By 1929, the wealthiest 1% held 40% of the national wealth. One 15% of Americans fell within the middle class.
In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt was elected President on the promise of a “New Deal” for America. Part of the New Deal was the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). Part of this act established Child Labor Laws, limiting when children could work, what they could do and insuring it would not interfere with their educational opportunities.
These child labor laws have protected children since 1938, but all across the country states are repealing their child labor laws to allow children to work at earlier ages, longer hours and in dangerous conditions. Since 2021, 28 states have proposed bills to weaken child labor standards. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 (better know as Trump 2025) makes repealing child labor laws a priority. As a matter of fact, Project 2025 states “demand the department of labor amend its hazard-order regulations to permit teenage workers access to work in regulated jobs with proper training and parental consent.” It is no coincidence the 28 states are controlled by Republicans. Since 2019, the number of child labor violations has increased 88%. A 16 year old boy was recently killed at a sawmill in Wisconsin when he became entangled in a machine and another in Pennsylvania died when he was pulled into a woodchipper.
Project 2025 states “Some young adults show an interest in inherently dangerous jobs. Current rules forbid many young people, even if their family is running the business, from working in such jobs. This results in worker shortages in dangerous fields and often discourages otherwise interested young workers from trying the more dangerous job.” Project 2025 maintains that removing child labor laws can help relieve labor shortages across the country. Just as McKinley’s policies led to more children in the workplace, Trump’s policies will do the same.
One thing you can be sure of, it WON’T be rich kids working these jobs. It will be the children of working-class Americans. While states are rolling back child labor laws, they are also busy attacking public education by using public school funds and giving them to the wealthy to help cover the cost of private school. Vouchers like tariffs, are a tax on the working class designed to benefit the wealthy.
Trump’s “golden age” is nothing new. It is a return to the “gilded age” where the wealthy benefited to the demise of the working class. Yes, all that glitters is not gold, particularly with the idea that a “golden age of America” is nothing but fool’s gold for workers and 24 carats for billionaires.
Working class Americans aren’t interested in gold, we are interested in surviving. A man who sits on a golden toilet is making that more difficult for the rest of us every day. There truly is nothing new under the sun, as Trump’s antics are nothing but a way to repeat the mistakes of the past to benefit billionaires.
Find Part One and Two in the Blog Section