Sublime

Rising real incomes allowed governments to adopt a strategy that placed more resources under their control. Small sums taken in taxes from millions could produce more revenue than larger amounts paid by a few powerful people. What is more, the many were far easier to deal with than the few, who were generally unwilling to give their money away and

has been developing a theory for how and why our hunter-gatherer ancestors made the crucial transition to sedentary communities that eventually led to city formation.

For example, economist George Steckel and anthropologist Jerome Rose (2002) examined health indicators for Prehispanic New World societies and found that the median health of individuals declined as societies grew more complex. This suggests social complexity emerges from mechanisms that promote coordinated behavior even if it is not in the best

If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

the question of why a stable international system suddenly collapsed after flourishing for centuries.

the richest eighty-five people have as much as the bottom three and a half billion.

La prima lezione è che occorre diffidare, in una materia del genere, di ogni determinismo economico: la storia della distribuzione delle ricchezze è sempre una storia profondamente politica, che non si esaurisce nell’individuazione dei meccanismi puramente economici. In particolare, la riduzione delle disuguaglianze osservata nei paesi sviluppati