Politics

The Real Problem With Rich People

Why the top 1% really are to blame for society’s ills.

Andrew Cheng
The Apeiron Blog
Published in
6 min readFeb 26, 2021

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

Since last December, I’ve been researching the sources of Donald Trump’s rise to power. I noted how the 45th President manipulated his base with professional wrestling showmanship and how he created scapegoats to start his populist movement.

But those were merely symptoms of a larger problem. In my journey to understand the Trump voter, all roads led to income inequality.

The Lack of Social Mobility

The problem isn’t so much the top 1% controls so much of the wealth; it’s that they have made social mobility astronomically difficult for everyone else.

According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, political instability happens when the rich and the powerful value personal economic gains over the rest of society.

While this pattern is recognizable for anyone with a passing knowledge of world history — from the French Revolution to China’s numerous dynastic shifts — the wealthy nonetheless fall victim to this trap when they find themselves in stiff competition to stay ahead.

The population and economic changes of this past century have made advancement particularly difficult. As we move towards a

Create an account to read the full story.

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Published in The Apeiron Blog

An easy to read philosophical space that aims to elicit discussion and debate on matters of the universe.

Written by Andrew Cheng

3x top writer, most recently in fiction. Author of God the Programmer. An atheist nostalgic for his Christian days. Slava Ukraini!

Responses (94)

The Democrats currently have control of both the House and the Senate. It’s a window of opportunity that could slip their fingers the moment the midterms roll around.

--

. Most of them think they’ve earned their benefits solely through their own labor,

--

In response to what they perceive as constant derision from college-graduated city dwellers,

--