typecast them, and power has been shared among three or four classes. How people are classed determines who
their allies and enemies are. People are put into these classes whether they like it or not because all people
stereotype. While 1) rich and poor and 2) right and left are the most common big class distinctions, there are
many other distinctions around 3) race, 4) ethnicity, 5) religion, 6) gender, 7) lifestyle (e.g., liberal or
conservative), and 8) location (e.g., urban versus rural). Generally speaking, people tend to cluster in these
classes, and when times are good early in the cycle there is more harmony between these classes and when
things are bad there is more fighting between them.
While I love that the United States is the country where these class distinctions matter least, people’s classes still
matter in the US and they matter a lot more during stressful times when class conflicts intensify.
To help you get the picture in a more intimate way let’s do a simple exercise. Assume that most people who
don’t know you well look at you as being of a certain class, because that’s a good assumption. Now, to
imagine how you are perceived, look at the list below and ask yourself which class or classes you fall into.
After you answer that, ask yourself which of the classes listed below do you feel an affinity for and expect to be
your allies. Which classes do you not like or view as your enemies? Which ones are the ruling classes, and which
ones are the revolutionary classes who want to topple them? Which ones are on the ascent, and which ones are on
the decline? You might consider writing these down and thinking about them because during periods of greater
conflict the classes you are in or are assumed to be in will become more important in determining who you will be
with and against, what you will do, and where you will end up.
1. Rich or poor?
2. Right, left, or moderate?
3. Race?
4. Ethnicity?
5. Religion?
6. Gender?
7. Lifestyle (e.g., liberal or conservative)?
8. Location (e.g., urban, suburban, or rural)?
Still today only a small percentage of the population, which comes from only a few of these classes, has most of
the wealth and power and rules as “the elites.” To me it is clear that a) the capitalist class now has the most
financial power in most countries and b) political power in democracies lies in the hands of all the people who
choose to vote while in autocracies it lies in the hands of the limited number of people selected by whatever
process they have to make selections.4 So, for the most part today, those are “the ruling classes” and “the elites”
that oversee the current domestic orders, though they are now under attack, so perhaps that is shifting. For
example, there is now a big movement in the United States to be much more inclusive of members of different
classes in both the capitalist money-making world and in the political world. These shifts can be good or bad
depending on whether they are handled peacefully or violently and smartly or stupidly. One timeless and universal
truth that I saw went back as far as I studied history, since before Confucius around 500 BC, is that those
societies that draw on the widest range of people and give them responsibilities based on their merits rather
than privileges are the most sustainably successful because they find the best talent to do their jobs well, they
have diversity of perspectives, and they are perceived as the most fair, which fosters social stability.
I presume that the current internal orders of countries, like those of the past, will continue to evolve to become
something different through the struggles of different classes with each other over how to divide wealth and
political power. Because this wealth and power dynamic is very important, it is worth watching closely to discern
which classes are gaining and which ones are losing wealth and power (e.g., AI and information technology
developers are now evolving to gain it at the expense of those who are being replaced by such technologies) and
also to discern the reactions to these shifts that lead the cycles to change.
So, as I see it, everything is changing in classic ways driven by a tried-and-true perpetual-motion machine. This
machine has produced, and is producing, different systems, such as communism, fascism, autocracies,
democracies, and evolutionary descendants and hybrids of these such as “state capitalism” in China. It will
produce new forms of internal orders to divide wealth and allocate political power that will affect our lives greatly,