Wealth Concentration and Elite Power in American History: From Natural Aristocracy to Corporate Oligarchy

The U.S. Constitution explicitly forbids titles of nobility, representing a clear ideological break from European aristocracy. Nevertheless, the country has always had privileged classes with significant power and influence over government policy. Several authors also refer to these as ruling classes, indicating the often-blurred lines between economic and industrial wealth and government influence. This is especially relevant today as a relative handful of powerful economic elites use various opinion-shaping apparatuses, money, and social position to influence the landscape of American politics, thereby inviting the epithet “oligarchy”. This article uses evidence-based historical narrative to survey important periods in American history of business and industrialist influence: the Gilded Age, the Robber Baron era, the present-day Tech Oligarchy. It discusses a pattern whereby these periods coincide with a marked income and wealth inequality which, during subsequent periods of “corrective” policies, is attenuated. The article examines the circumstances supporting the existence of entrenched privileged classes—a strong “government-industrialist complex” marked by lax business regulations and favorable tax policies—arguing that the present manifestation is distinguished by a constitutional crisis that represents a qualitative break from the past.