You know, the Gilded Age itself was followed by at least minor pushback, with Democratic processes striving to limit the excesses of capitalism. The labor movement itself was born from those excesses.

I haven't seen the series, because that sort of entertainment doesn't interest me, but if your perceptions are generally accurate, then it's a real shame that we're glorifying something so many Americans worked so hard against.

It's particularly ironic given we're living in something like a gilded age again, an agent in which American workers have largely lost the ability to effectively organize and collectively bargain with the owners of production.

Income disparities are probably approaching as large now as they were during the original gilded age, and things are getting worse rather than better.

For most of my life, people talked about America as being a relatively classless society. That wasn't exactly true when I was a young man, but there was at least some truth to the statement.

That has changed dramatically during my lifetime, and it would be nice to see popular entertainment acknowledging that rather than praising disparities.