A theory of affluence

Posted on August 8, 2007
Filed Under All, Politics |

Looking at the scene in places like Gaza and, closer to home, Oakland, it has been my observation that those communities have been hijacked by young men with guns. Nineteen-year-olds with shotguns or AK-47s rule the streets and hijack the social and political aspects of their respective communities. Poverty and violence are endemic in both places, despite the very different ethos found ithere - Hammas’ Islamist culture could hardly be more different than Oakland’s gang-and-drug lifestyle.

So, why is it that some communities don’t succumb to ’shotgun rule,’ while others do? Gregory Clark, an economic historian at the University of California, Davis, has a theory about that, to be published as a book next month, â€œA Farewell to Almsâ€ (Princeton University Press). Economic historians have high praise for his thesis, though many disagree with parts of it, according to the New York Times’ Nicholas Wade.

Davis says that the Industrial Revolution caused evolutionary adaptation leading to ’strange new behaviors’ - the middle-class values of nonviolence, literacy, long working hours and a willingness to save - that allowed first the Brits and then other similarly-situated populations to escape poverty and violence.

William Gibson has famously been quoted as saying “The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” I think this may well be the case with affluence, as well. Very interesting stuff, IMHO…