From a quick skim, that’s not actually what this says. It’s about wealth tending to concentrate in historical societies until there’s a catastrophe. The graph of estimated wealth inequality included takes an absolute nosedive in the 20th century before starting to climb back up a bit, and it’s still shown way lower than in the bad old days.
Keep in mind that ancient societies, at their worst, were mostly slaves, with just enough free people to beat them into submission. (At their best, you get some merchant republics and loosely overseen peasant communities, but no actual democracies)
From a quick skim, that’s not actually what this says. It’s about wealth tending to concentrate in historical societies until there’s a catastrophe. The graph of estimated wealth inequality included takes an absolute nosedive in the 20th century before starting to climb back up a bit, and it’s still shown way lower than in the bad old days.
Keep in mind that ancient societies, at their worst, were mostly slaves, with just enough free people to beat them into submission. (At their best, you get some merchant republics and loosely overseen peasant communities, but no actual democracies)