The first 25 years of the twenty-first century in the United States have been dominated by three powerful forces: a technological revolution, increasing income and wealth inequality, and a withdrawal of our country from global leadership. In the past, such a combination has proven to be disastrous.
Over the last few decades, there has been a plethora of new technology that has transformed the way in which we live our lives. The foundation of these technological advances was laid with the development of the microprocessor and the integrated circuit in the early 1970’s. By the 1990’s advances in these technologies resulted in the development and wide-spread use of such things as the personal computer, sophisticated computer software, the birth of the cellphone, the use of email, and the beginning of the use of the World Wide Web and internet. At the turn of the century, there was an explosion in the adoption and adaptation of new uses of technology with the development of smart phones, mobile computing, the wide-spread use of ecommerce, the birth of social networking, and dramatic advancements in artificial intelligence. The way we live has been fundamentally altered by the application of new technology and the use of it by society.
Since the current technological revolution began in 1990, there has been a dramatic increase in economic inequality. This can be seen by examining some basic wealth statistics for the top 1% of the wealthiest households, the next 9% of wealthiest households, and the bottom 90% of wealthiest households. The amount of wealth held across all three groups has gone up:
| Top 1% | Next 9% | Bottom 90% | |
| 1990 | $4.9 Trillion | $8.02 Trillion | $8.56 Trillion |
| 2020 | $37.5 Trillion | $47.4 Trillion | $38.8 Trillion |
| Change | +665% | +491% | +353% |
While all three groups have seen an increase in wealth, the amount of wealth held by the top 1% has seen a much greater percentage increase, almost twice the increase in the wealth held by the 90% least wealthy households. To better understand how dramatic this change has been, we can look at how the distribution (share) of total wealth has changed between these three groups:
| Top 1% | Next 9% | Bottom 90% | |
| 1990 | 22.8 | 37.3% | 39.8% |
| 2020 | 30% | 38% | 31.2% |
| Change | +31.5% | +2% | -21.6% |
The rise of the billionaire class is demonstrated by the 665% increase in the wealth held and the 31.5% increase in the percentage of total wealth held by the top 1% of wealthiest households. The next 9% of wealthiest households saw an increase of 491% in the wealth they held; their share of total wealth rose by just 2%. Even more dramatically, although the wealth held by the least wealthy 90% of the population increased by 353%, the share of total wealth they held fell by a whopping 21.6%.
These numbers show a dramatic increase in income inequality fueled by the technological revolution we have experienced. How well off a person is, is not just determined by the amount of wealth they hold, but also the amount of wealth they hold relative to other groups in the society. A poor person today might live better than a king a thousand years ago, but there is much more available today for everyone than there was for anyone back than. So, a poor person today is still a poor person today.
The third force has been the increasing isolationism of the United State, especially over the last ten years. The advocation of “America First”, the weakening and withdrawal from international organizations such as NATO and the World Health Organization, the limiting and delays of military aid to Ukraine, and the termination of programs such as USAID all demonstrate that Americans want to be less engaged in world affairs. Combined with an anti-immigrant agenda and the deportation of migrants this shows a rise in nativism and xenophobia. Also, there has been a rise of hate groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, as well as a broadening acceptance of facist ideas.
This is not the first time a confluence of these forces has occurred. One only has to look back to the turn of the last century to see a similar combination of events.
A technological revolution, even more dramatic than the one we have experienced, occurred about one hundred years ago. Its foundation was laid with the development of the internal combustion (gasoline) engine, the development of electric power, and the rise of a powerful financial market in New York. These events powered an explosion of technological innovations in the 1920’s that would transform the way people lived. The expansion of the automobile (and the infrastructure to support it), the airplane, the electrification of houses, the development of electric lighting and appliances, the expansion of the use of the telephone, and the birth of the radio, all revolutionized the daily lives of people.
This technological revolution also fueled a dramatic increase in wealth and wealth inequality as shown below in what happened to the share of wealth held by different groups.
| Top 1% | Next 9% | Bottom 90% | |
| 1917 | 40.5% | 37.8% | 21.7% |
| 1929 | 48% | 59.4% | 15.6% |
| Change | +18.5% | +57% | -28% |
As with the distribution of wealth fueled by the technological revolution of 1990-2020, the share of wealth held by the bottom 90% of households fell dramatically.
The third leg of our stool is the rise in isolationism that occurred in the United States in the 1920’s. After World War I, Americans turned away from a leadership position in world affairs. Despite President Woodrow Wilson being the main architech and promoter of the newly formed League of Nations, the United States Senate voted against the United States joining the League. This represented a turning away from world organizations and participation in world affairs. At the same time, there was a rise of xenopobia and nativism, which included a dramatic rise in groups like the Ku Klux Klan, which attained record membership. Additionally, there was the birth of facist ideology.
So there are stong parallels in what has happened at the beginning of the twenty-first century and what occured at the beginning of the twentieth century. The concern, of course, is that things did not turn out well the last time. The decade of the 1930’s was wrought with economic collapse and the Great Depression. The decade of the 1940’s was wracked with World War II, the most cataclysmic war in history. Unfortunately, we may now be dangerously close, to a similar ending.
