Those that do not study the past are doomed to repeat it. – a variation on a quote by Spanish philosopher George Santayana.
When I ran across the article featuring Stanford professor Walter Scheidel explaining “income inequality can be mitigated by policy but is only leveled by upheaval” in an article entitled “Historically, Income Inequality is Known as a Destroyer of Civilizations”, I was hooked. Seems the good professor studied history (one of my favorite topics), and, historically speaking, new civilizations start with a fairly even playing field income-wise but over time more and more income inequality slips in the cracks, widening the divisions between the have and the have-nots until something breaks and a new civilization is formed.
“Unfortunately for humans, the only remedy <for solving income inequality> appears to be societal upheaval, produced by war, disease, state collapse, or revolution.” (JakeThomas, 2021)
Eventually the divide of income inequality becomes so wide, the society shatters. The final straw could be War – neighbors seeing the weakness of the elite being isolated from the worker class, or wanting the isolated wealth-hordes for themselves, ripe for plucking in one easy package instead of distributed throughout the population. Disease – say, a pandemic, because a failing education system of the masses (prevents acceptance of a vaccine) – or food scarcity reducing the health of the masses, allowing a pandemic to spread among those who are not able to have healthcare and food for health. State collapse – maybe because the political system becomes so divided every action is considered from the elite “game” standpoint and not what is good for society and it can no longer respond in a timely fashion to disasters. Revolution – this one is simple – eat the rich. Once the poor are so poor they no longer care if they live or die, they are willing to die to save their children from the same fate.
Any or all of these, war, disease, or revolution, can take a society from the brink of collapse to a full dissolution. For those survivors of the process, a level playing field of whatever comes after the dissolution promises another turn at the civilization wheel.
Income inequality can be mitigated to delay the societal restructuring. Education of the young as EQUALS, both the elite and masses, is one possible key. So long as education isn’t linked to property or income, allowing the lines between the have and have-nots to be crossed, the pressure cooker can release some steam. But twenty years for the young to grow into haves and help their parents is a long time wait. (White, 2017)
And the education system in America would need restructuring. Right now, generational lines from redlining have separated the have-nots into the rural or urban settings – with lesser investment into education. Suburban settings provide Charters and STEM and enrichment opportunities. Artificial food scarcity and real safety issues impact the have-nots ability to focus for learning.
Second key would be restoring trust. People no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life. (Purtill, 2020) And they believe this because of empirical evidence that working hard is not getting them ahead, but the elite (the bosses and stockholders) are getting richer on the workers backs. The “gig” economy exists because workers can no longer afford to have one job and survive. They have no downtime.
And food insecurity is brutally high.
When a society can make enough food for everyone within the society but cannot deliver the food to its citizens to the point more than 10% wonder if they will have enough food to last a week, the divide between the elite and the workers are cracks quickly shattering the society’s foundation to dust.
And I live near one of the biggest problem areas in America:
Charlotte struggles with more than issues of food insecurity. Despite being one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation, it ranked dead last in a study that analyzed economic mobility in the 50 largest cities in the U.S, meaning it’s nearly impossible for residents living in poverty to gain financial security. (West, 2020 – bolded for emphasis)
The part of that sentence that I bolded above tore at me after reading about income inequality being a destroyer of civilizations. Because that sentence says the have-nots have NO chance to become haves – which mean overcoming the income inequality divide isn’t passible. My interpretation was America is much closer to that “society restructuring” that I would like; a society restructuring is not something I want to live through, if I am able to survive it at all.
Trust cannot be restored until the have-nots believe they have a chance to become haves.
Which leads to the third key. The burden of generational debt must be lifted somehow. The Marcetic interview with Hudson (2021) provides another historic perspective. Relief from debt. So long as workers get further in debt while working, their labor became less an equal exchange and more a slave who cannot leave. Interest collection on debt (a recent invention) exasperates the issue, as the interest will always be a little higher than inflation (it has to be for the banking numbers to work) which means the worker CANNOT get in front of it without a whole lot of luck. The have-nots are chasing loans building faster than they can be paid off.
I found it interesting that the word “debt” and for “sin” came from the same base. I remember learning the Lord’s Prayer with “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” and remember it changing to “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those that sin against us.” Until I read the Marcetic article, I didn’t realize what the “forgive us our debt” really meant. The article is eye-opening from a Christian perspective.
The forgiveness of debt brings the elite and the working class closer together. The elite lose some of the excess, and the workers lose some of the negatives that have prevented them from running the race.
A forgiveness of debt or other method of pulling the haves and have-nots together pushes back the eventual time of “societal restructuring.” Admittedly whatever mitigation is implemented will in-part be a societal restructuring, but it wouldn’t be a violent upheaval, just little steps. A more stable society.
The scales need leveling. I am hoping America can get our act together enough that we just move a couple of the bundles of the “haves” horde over the the “have-nots” needs, and not throw the scale into the trash with all the bundles and start over from scratch. Let’s break the cycle of history before it breaks us.
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