How Being Generous Leads to those in power maintaining it, instead of dying; a win-win for everyone

Being generous is a good skill to have, even if it motivated by self-interest. Those in power and wealth want to maintain them. They don’t want people to question authority and not rebel. Ironically, they are doing the very thing that will result in a world-wide revolution; hoarding. Many European Countries seem to have grasped this concept to some extent, we have not. Greed is how those in power and wealth lose their wealth.

The rich may have the mindset that it won’t happen to them in this country as it has happened to the rich in other countries (rebellions and revolutions, which has left them with a healthier respect of their citizenry). Let’s use the example of an empire that maintained for control for over a 1000 years; the Roman Empire. The romans were not a peaceful empire, but they avoided having to fight more than they otherwise would have. The reason for this is public programs. Sure, there was corruption (what civilization hasn’t had it to some extent), but they brought a better standard of living than what many had experienced before. If given a choice between conquered by a rival tribe or Rome, many picked Rome.

You may be wondering how I’m going to weave this back into a story about generous wealthy people holding onto wealth and power. Rome was good with public programs and taking care of the citizenry. They would bring marvels like the aqueduct, sewer systems, roads, (many of which are still intact). Also, cultures were incorporated (Greco-Roman Art as an example). Soldiers (even those aux troops that came from incorporated people, could afford to live on salary, though natural born romans were also given land). The game Rome Total War, does a good job of showing you how to avoid revolts. You keep your population happy, by using taxes to build roman roads, universities, sewer systems, trade markets, and temples.

What the capitalist rich throughout the world don’t seem to grasp is that other people are not resenting them necessarily for being rich; it’s the hoarding of wealth instead of using that money on public programs to help benefit everyone. Example; Bezos’s company uses roads more often than any other company I see, perhaps he should be paying more into public roads? If you put more money into public programs that help benefit everyone, it causes a lot less resentment, and you can remain rich. You also get the added benefit of not joining the prestigious rich in France during the French Revolution. Perhaps the rich, in all of their learning, should check out the bottom link as well, about the rich bragging about being heavily taxed in ancient Athens and the prestige that came with it.

Another bonus is that we don’t have a mass amount of violence through a civil war or revolution that everyone is at risk from dying from. We see what happens in countries where the lower/middle income populace is not taken care of. There is mass violence. Public infrastructure is bad. People die in droves.

https://graduateway.com/how-did-the-romans-obtain-and-control-such-a-vast-empire/

https://www.alternet.org/2011/09/4_ways_government_policy_favors_the_rich_and_keeps_the_rest_of_us_poor/

https://belonging.berkeley.edu/six-policies-reduce-economic-inequality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/08/974881298/grateful-for-taxes

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