Replies

In Russia, pretty much.

The quote has actually been pretty accurate down through most of history. One of the best things about free market rule of law capitalism, as it has developed over the last few centuries, is that it made possible the acquisition of wealth without oppressing others.

Indeed, it facilitates the creation of new wealth whereby everybody wins.

The traditional classical (Roman/Greek) way to acquire great wealth was to invade your neighbor, steal all their stuff and sell the survivors into slavery. Julius Caesar, for example, invaded Gaul with no decent excuse. About 2M of the 6M population died in the ensuing 10 year war. JC sold another 2M Gauls into slavery for his own personal profit, making him fabulously wealthy.

The wealth of the nobility in Europe was based on title to land acquired by ancestors who were the biggest and most effective thugs around. To be fair, the biggest thugs around were able to give protection to others in many cases, providing value to them.

Great wealth was accumulated by successful sugar and cotton planters from the 16th thru 19th centuries in the Americas. Their success was of course built on slavery and the slave trade.

The wealthy in Latin America got their wealth, till recently, by either playing crony capitalism successfully or being descended from those who did.

Same was generally true in China and other civilizations.

There were of course exceptions in all these periods, but the general rule is fairly accurate.

Jesus noted this when he commented on how difficult it would be for a wealthy man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I believe this was to at least some extent not because of the wealth itself, but because of how that wealth was often acquired. For instance, in the Judea of His day, by collaborating with the Roman oppressors of the Jews, as in tax farming.