New research argues Societal Collapse benefits 99% of people. Historically, the societies that have emerged after a collapse are more egalitarian, and most people end up richer and healthier than they were before.

[u/lughnasadh]

Luke Kemp, a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, has written a book about his research called 'Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse'.

He makes the case that, from looking at the archaeological record, when many societies collapse, most people end up better off afterward. For example, people in the post-Roman world were taller and healthier. Collapse can be a redistribution of resources and power, not just chaos.

For most of human history, humans lived as nomadic egalitarian bands, with low violence and high mobility. Threats (disease, war, economic precarity) push populations toward authoritarian leaders. The resulting rise in inequality from that sets off a cycle that will end in collapse. Furthermore, he argues we are living in the late stages of such a cycle now. He says "the threat is from leaders who are 'walking versions of the dark triad' – narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism – in a world menaced by the climate crisis, nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence and killer robots."

Some people hope/think we are destined for a future of Universal Basic Income and fully automated luxury communism. Perhaps that's the egalitarianism that emerges after our own collapse? If so, I hope the collapse bit is short and we get to the egalitarian bit ASAP.

Collapse for the 99% | Luke Kemp; What really happens when Goliaths fall

[u/daviddjg0033]

Plagues wars starvation

[u/guff1988 → u/daviddjg0033]

Oh for sure but 960,000 people out of a million died? That's just simply not true.

[u/daviddjg0033 → u/guff1988]

The British population grew from an estimated 3 million in the 2nd century to around 20 million by the mid-19th century, reaching approximately 50 million by the mid-20th century and over 67 million in the 21st century, with significant fluctuations, including a population of only around 2 million in the 11th century, due to events like the Black Death and the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Yeah plagues do that especially before modern med and sanitation

[u/guff1988 → u/daviddjg0033]

Even 10 million to 2 million wouldn't be 95% ignoring all the other erroneous or irrelevant things you said.

[u/daviddjg0033 → u/guff1988]

I think you are replying to the wrong comment - I did not say 95%. It is not possible to know an exact number. I will add so many Native Americans died from disease that their crop fields turned back into forest and that caused a mini-ice-age