Gilded means "coated with a thin layer of gold paint." The Gilded age was between 1870s through the 1890s. During the Gilded Age there were concerns of what the government was keeping from the people. The main concerns were a two fold. The first was that industrialist were becoming wealth at the expense of the public. The second was corruption and dishonesty in government with things like bribery and voter fraud. We have a similar period going on in this time of economic crisis. We all know that the economy is in a bad period. The unemployment rate is unusually high, many people cant find work. One of the major issues that government have tried to cover up is overspending. Going over budgets, that kind of stuff. Especially with all the money that was used to pay for the war. In the past Gilded age one of the fears was bribery happening in politics. Something that happened today was the case of Rod Blagojevich. He was bribing people by selling Obama's senate seat and making deals with the people who funded his campaign. So a lot of this stuff does still happen today. I think one of the main reasons that the public doesn't realize the problems that are happening in government is because people focus on gossip. I have a personal experience with this from a few years back when President Obama was about to take office. No one was talking about what changes Obama was going to make or how he was going to help our country in this economic crisis. Instead all people were talking about was what Michelle Obama was going to be wearing to the inaugural speech. This wasn't just in my family but I also saw this on New channels. So sometimes you have to look past the gold paint to see what really falters beneath it.
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