Economy had always been with us since millions years ago. It was not prominent until we shift from gather and hunter lifestyle to agrarian community. Agriculture made human for the first time be able to be a settler. Community proved to be more effective in expand its demography by settle in one strategic location than continuously roaming around. Expansion of population made subject of economy become the pivotal pillar for our human culture ever since.
In any complex civilization, it consist of population scale which required to be regulated. Human behaviour has to be regulated to ensure stability in a given community. Kings, barons, aristocrats or the great pirate (depicted in Dr. Fuller series) ; were the first group of "class" to acknowledge such concept. Unlike gather and hunter, virtually everyone are equal in term of economy, which shared everything they hunted without surplus. In fact, food and meats was very difficult to be store given the primitive lifestyle we all used to be. Agriculture made storage possible, with corps and corns often yield more than enough to feed a community during good season. The surpluses of harvest instead of given to people (which make them without incentive to bow to the kings or ruler classes) become a useful tools for ruler class to exert control over majority population. By controlling how and when to feed the people, we may have power over people. Regulated population was translated into stability, but at the expenses of systematically subservient condition to major population. That was the trend until industrialization age, when people can no longer within the poverty and revolution took place in many countries.
Incentive was what make human to behave in the way they behave. Jobs, roles, and responsibility, all are traced to the basic necessary gained and needed of each individual. History prove people are much easier to be control by psychological meant than forces. Therefore, starve and poverty imposition was obsolete. In fact it eventually create back fire to the ruler classes. New ideology such as sociology, democracy and marxism was the product of poverty imposition. Instead of making people a lower class, ruler class now create a new class of middle class. It make people can possess property for the first time. It give many most of us today something to lose, should we want to change any current circumstances now. Competitive economy policies was created. It make everyone in the context of paper regulations, has the equal chances to move to upper class. Hope is there. Something to lose and hope make human behaviour stable. The system created to ensure people are not desperate, therefore, under control. Good business to ruler class again. Same trend, different scheme at different time.
However, despite rulers class uses the economy, military and even technological meant to continuously exert their influences to majority of people, current economy trend with exponentially technological development has open a whole new opportunities to human kind to rethink what is best for our species regenerative. The brief history of economy as a tools to regulated people seem to be harsh in some way, but given superstitious ,naive, self interested , paranoid instinct human nature (when we lack of proper knowledge and wisdom access) during ancient time (when writing and printing was not even a prevalence social mechanism); utterly freedom without "cruelty" regulated society, perhaps we had long time perish from the history books, let alone discovery of sciences and economical growth that in certain degree uplifted the overall standard of living today. The true question here is, are we as human kind are playing our roles to properly educate ourself, and understand the history (therefore not repeating the same old mistake, and stop using history to critic human event today, make action rather than complain), and let the truth as authorize what is best for our civilization? We are at the cross road in human species history book, either we evolve or we perish... The road will not be easy, as complexity of culture and demographic now was never be comprehend through history pages. Bottom line, this road was never an option. It is necessary by nature.
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