Social scientists and anthropologists have done a fine job at discussing historical trends of inequality and the effects on society.
https://aeon.co/essays/history-tells-us-where-the-wealth-gap-leads
They describe the academic discipline of work being done by “chaoticians” who study “cliodynamics” as highlighted by this Peter Turchin essay.
Certainly, these may be relevant disciplines when investigating inequality, morality, and greed over the last few hundred years.
Review the impact of measurable greed and how to somehow thrive, even in the most highly unequal geographic locations within the United States.
Often scholars highlight the period from the 1920’s through the 1970’s as the “great compression”, when wealth disparities narrowed.
But this ‘great compression’ must be placed in a historical context with the activities that affected the poorest Americans – particularly, those being the newly freed slaves and their children.
“Peak Philanthropy” and Other Contributors to the Great Migration
And, thusly, it must monitor the effect and impacts as chronicled by people who study the Great Migration.
http://web.utk.edu/~mwanamak/Gains.pdf
Herein, one cannot seriously study inequality, without first studying American slavery.
Be wary of any essay aiming to discuss American inequity yet does not make mention of the American requirement for unpaid labor called out by race, and social policy that still contributes to widening disparities today — which largely goes unmentioned in the Turchin essay.
His only mention of these historically oppressed groups is in a line with other ethnic groups who were never required to invest their labor and talents into building America without up front compensation.
Moreover, these disparities continue widening at least since year 2000.
https://www.nber.org/papers/w24085
This also adds some level of confusion to his discussion of immigration – which is suggested to dilute labor pools, and cause wages to decrease.
But there’s little data that suggests wealthy people, governments, and large businesses choose to philanthropically invest and relinquish ownership of their assets simply because there are more or fewer people who need their assets.
To the contrary, the work of someone who studies chaos would point to the social instability caused by the extreme inequity.
Comparative Yield of Businesses Owned by Economically Disadvantaged People
Merely the ‘numbers of workers’ is not what drives people to relinquish control of their assets. Instead, it is the internal struggle of morality juxtaposed with the external views of chaos.
Natural laws of physics might indeed actually explain macroeconomic trends.
Use and appreciate these academic publications for their scholastic value and contribution, and conservatively insert discoveries into an accurate historical roadmap.
Use these contextualized views of history, to navigate through today and tomorrow, and preserve family security.