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In the history of humanity? That reads to me like you are not very familiar with history. We are probably living in the period of the least wealth inequality in
by irrational 3y ago
In the history of humanity? That reads to me like you are not very familiar with history. We are probably living in the period of the least wealth inequality in all of human history.
The typical “poor” person living in the USA lives in the lap of luxury (in terms of clothing, food, shelter, etc) compared to a serf in medieval Europe, a peasant under the Assyrians, etc. I mean, how many poor people have running water, electricity, Air Conditioning, etc.? Can you imagine a poor person from 3,000 years ago seeing that and then hearing talk about wealth inequality? It would sound insane.
Cesar Augustus was worth $4.6 Trillion. That’s a pretty huge wealth disparity to a common person back then. What about Mansa Musa? His wealth was so vast that nobody even knows how to put a number to it. Do you think the common people under him were rich?
- hotpotamus 3y agoYou know, I see this sort of inequality apologism in every one of these threads, but people sure seem pissed off at the system for some reason or other.
- irrational 3y agoI’m not saying there isn’t bad wealth inequality. I’m just saying that it is very far from the worst in all of human history.
- hotpotamus 3y agoGiven that there are still humans on Earth who live essentially as they would have thousands of years ago in hunter-gatherer or subsistence agricultural societies, you could also say that wealth inequality has only increased throughout human history and every day is worse than the one that has come before it.
- irrational 3y agoIf we are going to consider every single person on earth at the same time, then the time of Mansa Musa would have to be the absolutely worse since he was wealthier than any person on Earth today. Heck, even if you combined every billionaire on earth today, Mansa Musa would still be wealthier than all of their combined fortunes by at least an order of magnitude.
- hotpotamus 3y agoDo you think inequality has any deleterious effects on society?
- irrational 3y agoOf course. The question here is not one of whether wealth inequality is bad, but if we are living in the period of the greatest wealth inequality in all of human history.
- hotpotamus 3y agoOh I'm aware, but it sure seems like trying to compare now to the Pharohs' time or whatever is more of a whataboutism than actually trying to address the issue. Though it is interesting to think that being considered a god amongst humans is perhaps an even greater inequality than material wealth. Still, I'd rather have air conditioning and regular bathing than whatever your historical despot of choice had to put up with.