The Gilded Age was a period toward the end of the 19th century marked by rapid economic growth and prosperity. Just a few years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the Gilded Age ...

In her book The Second Estate, Ray Madoff explains how the U.S. tax system lets the ultra-rich grow their wealth tax-free while working Americans bear the burden.

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...

Yale Law professor Amy Chua cruised to wide attention several years ago for a supposedly satirical book about shaping her kids into child prodigies with brutal hazing. She recently wrote another book ...

David Brooks has a thought-provoking column today on how meritocracy creates geography-based aristocracies (and, therefore, inequalities) that government action can scarcely ameliorate. Excerpt: Smart ...

Now, other reports indicate there might have been other people involved in the decision, namely Prince William and Kate ...

Our Founding Fathers carefully eliminated in American law every special legal privilege of the old aristocracies of Europe. They strongly favored instead equality under the law, later enshrined in the ...

One of my best friends who I am committed to meet fortnightly for our mutual discussions and conversations on national and international matters asked me an interesting question during our last ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write from the left on politics and policy. The quest for influence, power and control at all levels of government has long ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...

This election, a fight between a political outsider and the established elite political class, will decide if “we the people” will bring an end to the aristocracy of the privileged few. Recently the ...