Gilded Age elites spent fortunes on display while most Americans earned under $1,200 yearly.

Evidence

In the 1890s, when 92 percent of Americans earned less than 1,200 a year (with an average income of 380), Newport socialite Mamie Fish held an extravagant dinner party in honor of her dog, who came decked out in a $15,000 diamond collar. Not to be outdone, Theresa Oelrichs decorated her estate with white flowers and swans, and commissioned a flotilla of white ships to hover offshore. Grace Vanderbilt brought the cast of a popular Broadway show to Newport to play at a theater she had specially constructed on her property. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 440

Categorization

• CANDY: The dog in a 15,000 diamond collar at a 380-average-income time is a light, tweetable dinner-party fact.
• XREF: connects to: Gilded Age growth enriched workers absolutely while enriching the top disproportionately. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1306; Gilded Age magnates literally imported English royal history into their Long Island homes

Related

• Gilded Age magnates literally imported English royal history into their Long Island homes (similarity 0.90)
• Gilded Age growth enriched workers absolutely while enriching the top disproportionately. (similarity 0.82)