interesting comment from Peter Richerson: It seems to me that political struggle can reduce inequality without necessarily [much] violence. Labor agitation in

interesting comment from Peter Richerson: It seems to me that political struggle can reduce inequality without necessarily [much] violence. Labor agitation in the US from the late 19th century through the 1950s played a large coercive role in reducing inequality. The US elite faced a choice, give labor a fairer share of the economic pie or eventually face revolution. Led by FDR and like minded actors, the political elite pushed the business elite to reduce inequality to avoid revolution. Whether this would have happened without two mass mobilization wars is an open question, but union organizing and the agitation of radical political parties struck fear into the elite, hence the Palmer Raids and Edgar Hoover’s excesses. But those creeps were middle class boys on the make, scaremongering the elites in the pursuit of elite position for themselves. They may have help the egalitarians be exaggerating the power of the “Reds.” A credible threat of revolution can coerce elites pretty effectively. Even Gandhian non-violence can be very effective. If you can organize a large mass of non-elites fanatically committed to non-violence, the elite has to worry what might happen if the non-violent fanatics suddenly got violently angry. The CP of China seems to really fear apparently harmless mass organizations like Falun Gong. Apolitical mass organizations are a threat to elites if inegalitarian or otherwise unfair treatment of commoners is common. Any such organization can morph into violent resistance at the drop of an atrocity. link to richerson's work: http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/richerson/richerson.htm http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/richerson/richerson.htm