How Does The Second Gilded Age End?
Get your free, 30-second personalized assessment TODAY at https://PDSDebt.com/miller. As a follow up from last week’s video on the French Revolution, today we’re looking at the Gilded Age to see what similarities and differences exist between late 1800s America and today. What can we learn from our past? And what can we do to try to reshape our future?
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@blackspring667
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
It ends in civilizational collapse. As it should.
@Caterfree10
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Carnegie was an anti worker, labor busting bastard, but at least he did leave libraries behind (there’s even one of those in the city next to mine!). Which is more than can be said about modern bastards who can’t even do that much. They just want the money without any understanding of how their forebears kept the guillotines off their necks.
And hey, even Bill Gates had a lot of good will for years because of his philanthropy! It’s gone down in recent years as people realize he really wasn’t donating fast enough and was still obscenely rich tho. Speaking of, donating so much that you go from billionaire to millionaire used to be a positive point for JKR! …right up until she decided transphobia would be her chief personality trait anyway and now her fortune goes toward making life worse for trans people in the UK with knock off effects elsewhere. <<+
@abmstudio3678
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
The first gilded age stopped with the great depression, followed by government spending and taxing and finally with the second world war.
@thomasalberico7970
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
I really appreciate your work! Very articulate yet easy to digest! Keep it up!❤👍🏻🙏🏼✌🏻
@TyrMcDohl
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Leftist voices are being algorithmically suppressed.
@stampedetrail2003
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Let's use Citizens United against the powerful and elite. 10 million people marched in No Kings, if each donated $100 to a PAC dedicated to destroying the political careers of those who oppose democracy and the people of America, we'd be unstoppable.
@blubbydragon5381
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Rv b h
@Patrick_The_Ren_Faire_Nut
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
I am from Pittsburgh, and a train nut, so between those two I have read plenty about Carnegie. There is a town bordering Pittsburgh named after him. His first library is in Braddock, the town Fetterman is from. Carnegie was hiding out in Scotland when the Homestead Steel Strike occurred, letting his buddy Frick take the blame; Frick was worse than Carnegie. During the strike, the strikers sent a boxcar full of dynamite towards the riverbank where the Pinkertons were coming ashore.
Carnegie started his own railroad because he didn't want to pay the fees of the Pennsylvania Railroad, so he started his own but it was never finished; the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built on the route of that railroad.
Carnegie was one of the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, and like all of the other members, was not held responsible for the failure of its dam that failed and flooded Johnstown.
@ycumbess
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Back then we just went from Gilded Age into World Wars..
@MoMo-rx4zr
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Well Americas first gilded age was limited to deforestation, extinction of local animals and oppression of the nation’s public…this one is leading to global climate change and opression of the global public
@magnumoppai159
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
you're half right. History is not a circle, its a downward spiral.
@TazmilysHero
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Is India aware trans men and NB people exist too?
@kayleelockheart8208
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
We are not worked up and angry because we are all on anti depressants to cope with a world and system that gaslights the hell out of us.
@neilmcclaran
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
👌
@NikkLiberos
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
"Fire and Blood" by George RR Martin
@cerywen
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Well, the last one ended in the worst economic crisis in recorded history and one of the worst environmental catastrophes in US history, followed by the largest war ever fought on all of history, so… probably something like that.
@HybridHunterCannabis
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Thanks for this
@timatwater8247
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Teddy Roosevelt was an important politician who now seems half forgotten, hopefully that will change.
@WeDilly19143
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
7:43 Not that it matters but you're not pronouncing Carnegie correctly ….it's Car-Nay-gie
@petruchio40
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Speak !
@docrob5320
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Get rid of billionaires
@biercenator
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Hope so! The extremely rich need to be taxed out of existence and the perpetrators of fascism and looting of the public purse need to be imprisoned. As a threshold to next steps.
@StormKingLand
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Wow. Some hope. Thank you! Everyone should follow advice and participate in local community. Only face to face can we learn trust and change things for the better… And you will feel better!!
@SchkuenteQoostewin
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Oh so this is what the left is planning, off to see the motherland and wipe my ponut with the red, white, and corporate. No revolution then I be startin the brain drain.
@DystopianUtopia8
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
I really hope it's with billionaires craniums on poles.
@mimicallsit7675
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
I be feeling like I’m not supposed to be here lol
@LouiseOblak
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Perhaps we need to overhaul how people in this country get elected in the first place. Stop allowing advertising, marketing, social media, phone/text calls, etc. Take away everything requiring money. Rely solely in televised debates and researching and speaking to address their track records/documentation, taxes, investments, businesses, their affiliations, memberships,etc.
No money.
Just facts.
No electoral college.
@arthurkjr
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
It ends wiith you shilling for centrism until you realize, too late, you were one of the bad guys.
@johnmorelli1988
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Had me untiil the round headed leftism about the "MAGA experiment fizzling out." What a shame.
@Matthew-zn3zm
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
You should be ashamed of plugging a debt settlement company. I work for credit card collections… They're all parasites. They obliterate your credit while charging you for "negotiations" that you can do for free.
@cc1k435
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
How will it end? Presumably by blowing up a ballroom, tearing down an arch and several gold statues, and prying a certain name off a bunch of buildings.
@paulpease8254
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
America is like if half of people watched those cartoons growing up where the angel sits on one shoulder and the devil on the other and both try to persuade the character to follow the moral or selfish path and are like, yes, I will listen to the devil’s arguments and always follow the selfish path.
@orvilpym
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
13:30 "It is a lot easier to swindle, steal, undercut and hoard money, when you make sure that some of that money you steal goes to benefit the masses."
16:23 "We have settled into our roles as consumers for the last century in ways that makes us easier to manipulate."
I think that the second bit explains the first bit – today's billionaires don't set up public libraries because instead they've set up fast food chains, mail order empires and streaming services. The stupefying "comfort" of consumerism that feeds our bodies and minds an endless stream of nutritionless comfort food, pointless ragebait and the illusions of choice and participation are the modern version of paying off the public via "good works" the way the robber barons did.
And while I do not want to contradict Leeja's words of encouragement and the need for local organizing, I feel that two vital points have been skipped over: How sure are we that today's billionaires really need us any longer? With automation not only of industrial processes but of police and military forces, do they still need us? Imagine the Homestead Steel Strike with the steel mill completely run by computers and machines, with only a tiny human management crew, or no humans at all, and protected instead of by Pinkertons or the National Guard, by an army of police robot dogs, autonomous kill vehicles, surveillance drones, etc. all under control of one owner and a handful of cronies.
Second, the current "maga experiment" does not only do damage to US internal institutions and the US place in the global world order. It does damage to the very biosphere we all depend on. And that is not only the maga movement, or the right-wing billionaires on their own, but the entire establishment, incl. the entire Democrat Party establishment. No side that is currently vying for power is showing any interest in doing anything but protecting the very richest from the consequences of their destruction. It probably is the very climate and biodiversity breakdown they are causing and the almost inevitable resource conflicts (for water, arable land, and food) that will be the result of this, that is the reason for the push for this automation of industry and armed forces – because french revolution levels of mass public "discomfort" are pretty much guaranteed, the ability to fight back by the masses – be it through open revolution or industrial actions through unions or strikes – must be dismantled before that point is reached.
@Archon3960
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Can I also mention our planet and ecosystem might not be able to wait for decades?
Certain people I won't name made themselves bunkers to escape the collapse they fear. And yes, it is paranoia. But it begs the question: is capitalism dooming itself (and us) in the end?
@Avalanche_Andy
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
There's a reason billionaires are spending so much effort and money to build robots. It only ends in violence.
@boitobenborbatocch
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
I really love your channel, Leeja.
@KutluMizrak
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
How does it end?
With blood and ash.
@gregstevens2917
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Good stuff, Leeja…I appreciate the optimism. 🙂
@12inter88
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
I’ve been saying this since 2021: we’ve entered the new Gilded Age.
@veritech1020
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Americans are far too busy watching reality shows or just trying to survive to actually do anything to save themselves as a society.
Don't worry. Manorialism is fun for all ages.
@SBXXXVII_SBLV
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
I don't know how, but I hope it's soon.
@pvtykerry9570
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
"If you're watching my videos, you are in the minority."
Politically minded and at minimum progressively communally motivated people are a small number here in the states, outside of small communities with deep shared history. No community, and hatred of it in favor of individualistic monetary gains. Top level and bottom level reality are mirroring themselves in extremely evil ways.
@Leah-r3w
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Is anyone else @#$! tired of the wealthy claiming they they are the bedrock and source of all jobs and therefore all prosperity? Do they even exist without a workforce? No workers no company. They mewl and whine that without them the economy would crash and threaten to move their factories if they are taxed at a sensible rate. Then F-ing go! Go look for a spineless country that will give you tax breaks, build the factory and expect nothing in return. You can pay poverty wages, give no health coverage, ignore safety regs. and again say you will move if they fail to suck up to you. The gilded age was a time of no taxes on the rich, extravagance, New York mansions and the four hundred who vied to piss money away on costume balls. Forget unions, they were crushed. Forget living wages, starvation is an effective diet. Forget the stock market, it's just a grift. Yes, Carnegie did provide libraries and the like for the peons, but it gave him an excuse to preach to the masses about betterment. Still, the big wigs of the gilded age were more amusing than the current crop of rich a holes and they understood that dribbles of prosperity could content the masses. Vanderbilts, Jeromes, Belmonts, Goulds and more certainly had spicy lives that are still talked about. Carnegie Hall, the Waldorf Astoria and the Seven Sisters were just a few of the enrichments provided by the grossly wealthy. Todays foundations operate under the reigns of the super wealthy who pick and choose their personal interests, control the purse strings and look for tax write offs. Sorry to rant but I am so frustrated/enraged that the progress of society runs in an endless loop orchestrated by these rich cucks…..they are like athletes foot, they just keep coming back with the same symptoms.
@331Grabber
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
I refer to the cyclical nature that you were referring to as generational amnesia. When you have enough Generations that have gone by the same problems will repeat because no one remembers what it was like to go through it the last time. Fascism is Rising again as the World War II generation dies off.
@1Americaisbeautiful
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Pitchforks and torches
@modestMousse
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Amazon Prime seems to be the way Bezos tries to win the goodwill of the people. Granted that for those who know about the piss jars, other bad labor conditions, and corrosive economic impacts, the service is pretty cursed. But for those who don't know, it's just a convenient service.
The problem is, as Leeja says at 17:20, not many folks are tracking politics like this, so that makes me feel concerned about how many people are unaware of the service's dark side and therefor just see the service as a reason to like Amazon and Bezos.
@ZombieFighter95
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
More like "wtaf America?"
@varloch9477
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
The thing is that I don't think voting is going to help right now. For a lot of people trump was a protest vote from the worst excesses of the left. But the left hasn't really moderated and trump and the right are leaning into becoming or already are bush round 3. For us to have reform we need to give them both a vote of no confidence a complete rejection of the kleptocrats and their backing. Id sooner trust a homeless addict in the Whitehouse because then at least they aren't bought and paid for by insane transhumanist billionaires
@talefey
May 26, 2026 at 5:59 pm
No one is coming to save us.
Comments are closed.