When I was playing my favorite game ever; Rome Total War, there is a part of the game that is really interesting. The battles are good, and there are plagues that happen to make for a more realistic game, but there is also the problem that you must mitigate in happiness level. You don’t want your populace to get in the red, because then the prospect of a revolt by the city grows more dangerous. You help fix this by providing more infrastructure such as schools/better education systems that allows workers to go into trades to help the city. The player also can lower taxes to increase more people moving in to your cities. The nice aspect of the game is that the rich are actually taxed more in order to provide support for their civilization, seeing as how they are benefitting more?
The reader might be asking themselves; “what does this have to do with our current system?” I’m glad you asked. The worse the poor and middle-class are doing, the more resentful they tend to get. The rich before revolutions/revolts always seem to forget this fact. These are bloody, and takes time, life and money away from everyone. How about we just tax the wealth of the rich, or bring the tax rate on income back to the 50’s, when the rich got taxed a fair extent and people were less resentful with them?
Structural programs in the U.S. that would help make workers happier; shorter work week, living wages, Universal Basic Income, taxing the rich and more. Shorter work week and living wages for workers makes them happier and less likely to revolt. This saves the government and corporations money on; fighting strikes and unions, repair work due to riots/revolts, money they lose said to having to fight citizens, time taken away from people working, with hurts the economy as well. An investment if you will; our government loves investing! UBI would help the economy, because everyone would have some money coming in, and enough to live on, for the basics. This would mean more money coming into economies. Ironically, homelessness is expensive for governments to deal with. Finland started a housing-first program, which gives everyone a safety net and saves them money in the long run.
Taxing the rich helps grow the economy. Money goes into programs like roads and hospitals, schools, and housing. Nothing is perfect, but it creates a more equitable system, where those at the bottom wouldn’t have to consider eating the rich as a way of funding their retirement.
https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-homelessness-in-america/
America's Failing System 
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