Private property, and its derivative, unearned or property income, has
enabled the ruling oligarchies of civilized communities to receive the
first fruits of every enterprise. They have also enabled the oligarchs
to establish a priority scale of income distribution under which those
who held property and its derivatives could have first choice among
available consumer goods and services. Second choice went to the
associates, retainers and defenders of the oligarchs. Third choice went
to the preferred, professional experts who spoke for and represented the
oligarchy. Fourth choice went to the artisans--skilled designers,
builders, fabricators. What remained went to hewers of wood and drawers
of water, the workers, women and men, who provided the necessaries,
comforts, luxuries upon which physical survival and social status
depended. Generally this proletarian mass, including chattel slaves,
serfs, tenant farmers and war captives, were outside the pale of
respectability. In a caste-divided community they were scavengers and
untouchables, living a life close to that of domestic animals.
Most civilizations have permitted gifted individuals to move vertically,
from the bottom toward the top levels of the social pyramid. Vertical
movement was severely restricted, however. Generally people lived,
served and died on the class or caste level into which they were born.
Members of classes and castes are not free agents.
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