We’ve repeatedly noted that inequality in America today is worse than it was in the Gilded Age [3], worse than in Egypt, Tunisia or Yemen [4], and worse than in many banana republics in Latin America [5].
We’ve also noted that inequality in modern America is twice as bad as in ancient Rome [6] ... which was built on slave labor.
A newly-updated study [7] by professors Peter Lindert of the University of California at Davis and Jeffrey Williamson of Harvard shows that inequality is now worse than in the slave-holding colonies. As the Atlantic notes [8]:
American income inequality may be more severe today than it was way back in 1774 — even if you factor in slavery.
This is not a partisan issue: both conservatives and liberals are concerned about runaway inequality [9] and the collapse of social mobility [10].
Indeed, we’ve known [11] for thousands of years [12] that:
An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.
Obviously, we do not condone slavery. As the Atlantic notes in a footnote:
Please don’t interpret anything in this article as suggesting that American slavery was anything less than horrific. The paper only suggests that on a strictly dollars and cents basis, income was skewed less towards the rich during the colonial era than it is today.