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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks 1010RD. |
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Posted on 12/22/2011 5:46:00 AM PST by 1010RD
Over the last 30 years, wealth in the United States has been steadily concentrating in the upper economic echelons. Whereas the top 1 percent used to control a little over 30 percent of the wealth, they now control 40 percent. It’s a trend that was for decades brushed under the rug but is now on the tops of minds and at the tips of tongues.
Since too much inequality can foment revolt and instability, the CIA regularly updates statistics on income distribution for countries around the world, including the U.S. Between 1997 and 2007, inequality in the U.S. grew by almost 10 percent, making it more unequal than Russia, infamous for its powerful oligarchs. The U.S. is not faring well historically, either. Even the Roman Empire, a society built on conquest and slave labor, had a more equitable income distribution.
To determine the size of the Roman economy and the distribution of income, historians Walter Schiedel and Steven Friesen pored over papyri ledgers, previous scholarly estimates, imperial edicts, and Biblical passages. Their target was the state of the economy when the empire was at its population zenith, around 150 C.E. Schiedel and Friesen estimate that the top 1 percent of Roman society controlled 16 percent of the wealth, less than half of what America’s top 1 percent control.
To arrive at that number, they broke down Roman society into its established and implicit classes. Deriving income for the majority of plebeians required estimating the amount of wheat they might have consumed. From there, they could backtrack to daily wages based on wheat costs (most plebs did not have much, if any, discretionary income). Next they estimated the incomes of the “respectable” and “middling” sectors by multiplying the wages of the bottom class by a coefficient derived from a review of the literature. The few “respectable” and “middling” Romans enjoyed comfortable, but not lavish, lifestyles.
Above the plebs were perched the elite Roman orders. These well-defined classes played important roles in politics and commerce. The ruling patricians sat at the top, though their numbers were likely too few to consider. Below them were the senators. Their numbers are well known—there were 600 in 150 C.E.—but estimating their wealth was difficult. Like most politicians today, they were wealthy—to become a senator, a man had to be worth at least 1 million sesterces (a Roman coin, abbreviated HS). In reality, most possessed even greater fortunes. Schiedel and Friesen estimate the average senator was worth over HS5 million and drew annual incomes of more than HS300,000.
After the senators came the equestrians. Originally the Roman army’s cavalry, they evolved into a commercial class after senators were banned from business deals in 218 B.C. An equestrian’s holdings were worth on average about HS600,000, and he earned an average of HS40,000 per year. The decuriones, or city councilmen, occupied the step below the equestrians. They earning about HS9,000 per year and held assets of around HS150,000. Other miscellaneous wealthy people drew incomes and held fortunes of about the same amount as the decuriones.
In total, Schiedel and Friesen figure the elite orders and other wealthy made up about 1.5 percent of the 70 million inhabitants the empire claimed at its peak. Together, they controlled around 20 percent of the wealth.
These numbers paint a picture of two Romes, one of respectable, if not fabulous, wealth and the other of meager wages, enough to survive day-to-day but not enough to prosper. The wealthy were also largely concentrated in the cities. It’s not unlike the U.S. today. Indeed, based on a widely used measure of income inequality, the Gini coefficient, imperial Rome was slightly more equal than the U.S.
The CIA, World Bank, and other institutions track the Gini coefficients of modern nations. It’s a unitless number, which can make it somewhat tricky to understand. I find visualizing it helps. Take a look at the following graph.
Gini coefficient of inequality
To calculate the Gini coefficient, you divide the orange area (A) by the sum of the orange and blue areas (A + B). The more unequal the income distribution, the larger the orange area. The Gini coefficient scales from 0 to 1, where 0 means each portion of the population gathers an equal amount of income and 1 means a single person collects everything. Schiedel and Friesen calculated a Gini coefficient of 0.42–0.44 for Rome. By comparison, the Gini coefficient in the U.S. in 2007 was 0.45.
Schiedel and Friesen aren’t passing judgement on the ancient Romans, nor are they on modern day Americans. Theirs is an academic study, one used to further scholarship on one of the great ancient civilizations. But buried 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?
Source:
Scheidel, W., & Friesen, S. (2010). The Size of the Economy and the Distribution of Income in the Roman Empire Journal of Roman Studies, 99 DOI: 10.3815/007543509789745223
Of interest to your lists. Metmom, homeschoolers may be very interested in studying the Gini coefficient as well as the history of political systems and revolutions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrado_Gini
Keep in mind: “Gini was also a leading fascist theorist and ideologue who wrote The Scientific Basis of Fascism in 1927. Gini was a proponent of the concept of organicism and applied it to nations.”
It isn’t unusual for our modern fascists - liberals - to be using the ideas of fascists to promote liberalism. They’re one and the same.
If the USA is like Rome, then we have another 1000 years to go before the fall.
Maybe like Rome, this “Kingdom” will have an eastern and western ( Southern and Northern?) capital...
Great insight.
Conflation of wealth and income.
In Ancient Rome, the curiales (from co + viria, ‘gathering of men’) were initially the leading members of a gentes (clan) of the city of Rome. Their roles were both civil and sacred. Each gens curiales had a leader, called a curio. The whole arrangement of assemblies was presided over by the curio maximus.
The Roman civic form was replicated in the towns and cities of the empire as they came under Roman control. By the Late Empire Period, curiales referred to the merchants, businessmen, and medium-sized landowners who served in their local Curia as local magistrates and Decurions. Curiales were expected to procure funds for public building projects, temples, festivities, games, and local welfare systems. They would often pay for these expenses out of their own pocket (undoubtedly mentioning their generosity) as a means to increase their personal prestige.
The Curiales were also responsible for the collection of Imperial taxes, provided food and board for the army, and supported the imperial post (cursus publicus).
As the Empire declined and the economy floundered, membership among the curial class became financially ruinous to all but the most wealthy (who in many cases were able to purchase exemptions from their obligations). Because of this, many tried to escape by enrolling in positions that cancelled curial responsibilities, such as the army, the Imperial government, or the Church.
If the USA is like Rome, then we have another 1000 years to go before the fall.
Fast forward a few years. There was a 1,500% inflation due to currence debasement in the Third Century A.D. Thereafter Diocletian collected taxes in the form of goods needed to provision a soldier because there was no effective currency. He imposed wage and proce controls backed by a death penalty.
The currency was somewhat restored under Constantine, but in following years, when it was debased, they blamed inflation on “speculators.” The tax burden got so bad that Emperor Valens declared it illegal in 368 A.D. to place yourself into slavery - slaves didn’t pay taxes. As things went, the slaves simply opened the gates of Rome to let Alaric in in 410.
So the better academic inquiry would be to examine wealth distribution temporally as taxes rose, regulation increased and the currency was debased. What you will see is that the wealthy use the state to protect themselves. They were the last Romans to fall.
Note tagline.
Note tagline.
Note tagline.
Some commies set out to “prove” that “income inequality” in the US today is greater than in any country at any time in world history. Not unsurprisingly this statistical analysis cum manipulation takes place at a time when a certain political party, under fire for the near-ruination of the US economy, is attempting a Soviet-style diversionary attack on the “wealthy US plutocrats”. So much for the “scientific method”, but since we’re all living in the real world, how many millions of people around globe would still rather be living in “poverty” in the US of A, even in the midst of Obamanomics and our horrible income inequality, than the crap-holes in which they find themselves. When the Mexican illegals go home voluntarily and the Russian/Asian/Latin American women stop looking for US mates, maybe then we can worry about income inequality.
“After the senators came the equestrians. Originally the Roman army’s cavalry, they evolved into a commercial class after senators were banned from business deals in 218 B.C. An equestrian’s holdings were worth on average about HS600,000, and he earned an average of HS40,000 per year. The decuriones, or city councilmen, occupied the step below the equestrians. They earning about HS9,000 per year and held assets of around HS150,000. Other miscellaneous wealthy people drew incomes and held fortunes of about the same amount as the decuriones. “
I am trying to picture someone with a net worth of $150k, on an income of $9k.
All I can come up with a retiree on SS, who owns their house free & clear.
It may help to think of Harry Reid.
7 figure net worth on a Senator’s salary.
Actually, if I may revise & extend my remarks ... I suspect $9k won’t carry the utilities and taxes on a $150k home.
That is prima facea evidence of corruption. Harry Ried, I mean. If one becomes a millionaire on a Senator’s salary, one is taking bribes.
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks 1010RD. |
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Not a significant difference.
One should plot a similar "P2" coefficient where the useful labors of each are compared
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