NY Mag: I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society, page 4

reply to post by Rosinitiate

I see what you're saying and noted the cycle or persistence of "the way things are" over time. It's existed for so very long and in nearly every society. There's actually very few that had a more balanced society where being ostentatiously wealthy was a social crime and nope, that wasn't the USSR or China. The Navajo actually view the overtly wealthy with suspicion and, previously, allowed for some amounts of theft for the purpose of economic redistribution. It was what ultimately got them into very serious trouble and the recipients of Scorched Earth policies by our government.

Even in those societies that we believed to have everyone living at the same level as in the USSR, it really wasn't so. The Soviet Union was intended to be the land of engineers and rational, scientific thinking. Accordingly, those engineers, whether it be logistical in terms of supply or inventors, that were the upper crust were treated as such. Better Western style housing developments and parties for them and that scenario existed before Stalin's time. Even in idea places that were supposed to be based off of total equitable treatment, the same scenario still existed where some rats climbed on top of the rest.

I sometimes think it's human nature to want to surpass one's neighbors across all boards. Have to have the better house, better yard, better car, better wife, better smartphone, and so on. It's been that way for so long that it has to be human nature and yes, a society may do things that resets the distribution now and then. However, even in those societies that have done so, the chips still fall inequitably yet again.