To the editor:
When Andrew Ross Sorkin was doing research for his book about the stock market crash of 1929, he noticed warning signs we should heed. He believes the circumstances for the 1929 crash are similar to today because of excessive leverage, a tech-driven boom and potential bubble (like AI today), significant wealth inequality, and a loosening of regulations. He warns that the financial world is being propped up by an “unsustainable” artificial intelligence boom and that lessons from history about how greed and excessive credit can lead to crisis have not been fully learned.
We have been watching Ken Burn’s “American Revolution.” That uprising came due to the king and Parliament treating the colonies as a source of income through unbalanced trade rules and regulations with objections being ignored. Taxation without representation and bringing in troops to quell disturbances were the final straw. (Sound familiar?)
The French Revolution was caused by a financial crisis similar to that in Britain. The French had a rigid social structure of haves and have-nots, with widespread economic hardship that was ignored by the king and ruling class. When Marie Antoinette was told the people were starving for lack of bread, her response was, “Let them eat cake.” This should remind you of Trump’s Gatsby-themed Halloween party for his wealthy friends at Mar-a-Lago. While Trump callously toils to remove healthcare and SNAP benefits from those in need, he celebrates causing his gathering to be characterized as a let-them-eat-cake affair.
The Russian Revolution was similarly caused by a lack of recognition by the tsar and ruling class as to what the general populace was experiencing. Feeling like pawns to be used and abused led to communism, which collapsed decades later.
Every year in the U.S., it seems that the wealth gap between the top and the bottom widens. Presently, approximately 70 percent of the countries‘s wealth is in the hands of the top 10 percent of the population. We have more than 10,600 people with a net worth greater than $100 million, and depending on the ups and downs of the stock market, there are 800 to 1,100 people with a net worth greater than $1 billion. Despite this, Republicans saw fit to pass Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that gives tax breaks to the rich and corporations they neither asked for nor need. (It begs the question, how much is enough?) This legislation also removes safety nets for those needing them most.
I am not predicting an American-, French-, or Russian-style revolution, but if Trump and Republicans succeed in limiting the 2026 vote by rigging the election, I do not foresee people standing by and letting that happen. By deploying ICE, Border Patrol, and military and National Guard troops in cities, Trump wants you to see this as “normal,” which it is not!
Frank Gunsberg
Great Barrington
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