
Stylish suburbs: how ancient Mexican metropolis dodged inequality trap (2019) - diodorus
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-archeology-teotihuacan-feature/stylish-suburbs-how-ancient-mexican-metropolis-dodged-inequality-trap-idUSKBN1YN0J2
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namenotrequired
The article does not answer the "how" question.

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fit2rule
The idea that the inequality trap was avoided, is demonstrated in the relics
left behind - and in that regard the article does indeed present data to
suggest that wealth was distributed because the culture was based around the
distribution - free commerce - of skilled artisans producing valuable goods
derived from locally available, abundant resources.

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bsanr2
Essentially, low barrier to entry. Something that free education (not
necessarily limited to degree-granting colleges, and perhaps living grants for
self-study) and a robust safety net could achieve today.

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WalterBright
I don't know how much can be really inferred from digging through buried
rubble. We know a lot about Rome because they had writing and people who lived
then chronicling life there.

Commoners live well in free market societies, and there's no slavery. Perhaps
that's how they lived.

For example, the article points out that the height difference between rich &
commoners was not so much. But heights improved throughout America in the
1800's (quite dramatically, in fact).

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ptah
> Commoners live well in free market societies, and there's no slavery.

Do you have evidence of this?

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barry-cotter
Infant mortality is lower for the bottom decile, almost certainly the bottom
percentile in high and middle income countries now than for the very richest
and most powerful before antibiotics. Calvin Coolidge’s son died of an
infected blister he got from a racket playing tennis.

In every continent bar Africa education, healthy lifespan and average wealth
as proxied by GDP/capita have improved since WWII. Even in Africa education
and health have improved, despite AIDS, and it looks like economic growth
might finally take off.

Some of this is due to technological advances but capitalism beats the pants
off all alternative models at that, as we can see from the history of the
Soviet Union, which managed to almost keep up militarily with the US while
spending twice to three times as much as a proportion of GDP.

Slavery is absent in all OECD countries and almost all that are substantially
poorer and less economically free.

Yes, we have evidence of this.

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chownie
I don't think looking at GDP/capita proxies quality of life at all.

If you and I pay one another $100 every week we'll both be boosting GDP and
doing nothing of material worth aside from paying the taxes on the exchange.

I'm also not convinced that it's absent in all OECD countries given an
explicit loophole allowing slavery of prisoners in the US constitution.

~~~
barry-cotter
[https://ourworldindata.org/human-development-
index](https://ourworldindata.org/human-development-index)

Positive correlation between human development index and GDP per capita; also
positive correlation between GDP per capita and education and health.

