Even the Ancient Roman Empire Wasn’t as Unequal as America

Gus Lubin (Business Insider) | RS_News
December  17 2011

Business InsiderSome 1,500 years after the fall of the Roman Empire, the supposedly advanced and progressive United States of America is plagued by even worse income inequality.

Tim De Chant at Per Square Mile reached this conclusion based on a study by historians Walter Schiedel and Steven Friesen.

Rome’s top 1% controlled 16 percent of the wealth, compared to modern America where the top 1% controls 40 percent of the wealth.

Looking at the Gini coefficient, where 0 means perfect equality and 1 means perfect inequality, Rome measured between 0.42 and 0.44. Modern America scores worse at 0.45, and some areas are much worse like Fairfield County, Conn. with an alarming 0.54.

De Chant comments on a telling line from the essay by Shiedel and Friesen:

At the end, they make a point that’s difficult to parse, yet provocative. They point out that the majority of extant Roman ruins resulted from the economic activities of the top 10 percent. “Yet the disproportionate visibility of this ‘fortunate decile’ must not let us forget the vast but – to us – inconspicuous majority that failed even to begin to share in the moderate amount of economic growth associated with large-scale formation in the ancient Mediterranean and its hinterlands.”

In other words, what we see as the glory of Rome is really just the rubble of the rich, built on the backs of poor farmers and laborers, traces of whom have all but vanished. It’s as though Rome’s 99 percent never existed. Which makes me wonder, what will future civilizations think of us?

2 thoughts on “Even the Ancient Roman Empire Wasn’t as Unequal as America

  1. An interesting perspective on the economy of nations – in this case Ancient Rome and the US. I would be quite interested in knowing about how other nations have or do compare to us. What a disproportionate distribution of wealth. I think we’d not be surprised to know how the backs of the less than rich have bore the burden and built the towers of civilization. I thereby understand why the protestors in Occupy Wallstreet are making their stands. It is like nations all around the world. It is a world wide people’s revolution going on. The masses are angry, feel abused, and express discontent over the imbalance in the shift of wealth being such a small percentage and their tax is less than the 99% comparatively speaking. I understand their overall feeling that enough is enough. Reading this post made me think of that. I enjoyed the view.
    Yisraela

    1. Thanks for commenting, Yisraela. I think the comparison between Rome and America is being made because Rome was the pre-eminent empire builder of its time and America has been co-opted by the Cabal to play Rome’s role in the 21st century. When one adds to the picture the fact that Rome had slaves who were cared for and fed (not supporting slavery here, folks, just making an observation), there was likely less destitution in the form of homelessness to be observed in Rome’s capital during its heydey.

      Blessings. Gillian

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