The power structure of a society

Most societies are ruled by a small but powerful minority. How can a small minority maintain such a great power without causing revolt from the majority?

In a biography of Churchill, it was stated that Churchill "naturally had a lively sympathy for the underdog, particularly against the middle-dog, provided, and it was quite a big proviso, that his own position as a top-dog was unchallenged" (Jenkins, p. 180)

Churchill’s method is the standard practice of the powerful upper class. Top dogs, with low capital gain taxes and many “loopholes”, enjoy tax heavens. Warren Buffett once confessed, or bragged, that his tax rate is much lower than that of his secretary. The incomes of middle dogs are taxed heavily to subsidize the welfare of under dogs. With the help of affirmative action, under dogs maul viciously against middle dogs on equal footing while top dogs enjoy their exclusive privileges. In the last half century, the wealth of the upper class has skyrocketed; the living standard of the lower class have improved tremendously; but the living standard of the middle class has mostly stagnated. 

Many phenomena in the society can be understood as examples of such practice. Looting has been increasingly decriminalized while self defence has been increasingly criminalized. This is to empower robbers and to enfeeble working people.

This type of Churchillian practice is quite standard in politics and economics. But there is little academic research about such a practice. Churchill has become such an icon for the top dogs that "researching less popular episodes in Churchill's life[…] would either finish their careers, preclude them from promotion, or make them outcasts in academia." (Hirsch, 2018)

We will apply value theory to make further analysis. Value can be represented by  -log_bP, where P is scarcity and b is the number of choices. Please refer to Chen (2018) for more details.

Suppose 10% of the population are upper class, 30% of the population are middle class, 60% of the population are lower class. Suppose there are two choices in selecting a service. For example, when we vote for a position, there are two candidates. Then the value of a member of upper class is  - log₂0.1 = 3.32, the value of a member of middle class is – log₂0.3 = 1.74, the value of a member of lower class is  - log₂0.6 = 0.74.

Now the upper class attempt to increase its distance from the middle class. With political power, it taxes middle class heavily and greatly raises the welfare benefit for the lower class to realize equity among the middle and lower classes. Together, the new middle and lower class represent 90% of the total population. The value of new equalized middle and lower class is  – log₂0.9  = 0.15. In this way, the wealth and power of the upper class become much greater than the rest of the society.

However, the upper class would not stop here. It further promotes diversity and inclusion among the middle and lower class. People are separated by their race, sexual orientation, religion and many other factors. In this way, the population is split into many rival groups hostile to each other. The base of the logarithm function, instead of the original 2, becomes a much larger number. Suppose the new number is 10. The value of new equalized middle and lower class is  – log₁₀0.9 = 0.05. This is a further reduction from the already diminished value after implementing the policy of equity. The policy of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) greatly reduces the political power and financial wealth of the majority of the population. The power and wealth of the society is firmly consolidated into the hands of a small group of elites.

References

Chen, J.  An Entropy Theory of Value, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, (2018), December, Vol 47, 73-81.

Hirsch, Afua (21 March 2018). "If you talk about Russian propaganda, remember: Britain has myths too". The Guardian. London

Jenkins, Roy (2001). Churchill. London: Macmillan