The Origins of Enduring Economic Inequality

Until about five thousand years ago elevated levels of wealth inequality among the famers and hunter gatherers of western Eurasia occurred but were temporary and rare compared to the substantial enduring inequalities since then. Archaeological and anthropological evidence suggests that for at least four millennia following the agricultural revolution, a culture of aggressive egalitarianism resisted the emergence of enduring wealth inequality. The eventual emergence of enduring wealth inequality occurred with the introduction of new labor saving farming technologies that made land scarce and labor abundant and a concentration of elite power in early proto-states (and eventually the exploitation of enslaved labor) that provided the political conditions for heightened wealth inequalities to endure. This account of the prehistoric origins of enduring inequality may provide some lessons about the future course of wealth disparities and the policies that will be required to mitigate them.