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<oembed><version>1.0</version><provider_name>naked capitalism</provider_name><provider_url>https://www.nakedcapitalism.com</provider_url><author_name>Yves Smith</author_name><author_url>https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/author/yves-smith</author_url><title>Yasha Levine: Recovered Economic History &#x2013; &#x201C;Everyone But an Idiot Knows That The Lower Classes Must Be Kept Poor, or They Will Never Be Industrious&#x201D; | naked capitalism</title><type>rich</type><width>600</width><height>338</height><html>&lt;blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="qSthaFIHvN"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/yasha-levine-recovered-economic-history-everyone-but-an-idiot-knows-that-the-lower-classes-must-be-kept-poor-or-they-will-never-be-industrious.html"&gt;Yasha Levine: Recovered Economic History &#x2013; &#x201C;Everyone But an Idiot Knows That The Lower Classes Must Be Kept Poor, or They Will Never Be Industrious&#x201D;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/yasha-levine-recovered-economic-history-everyone-but-an-idiot-knows-that-the-lower-classes-must-be-kept-poor-or-they-will-never-be-industrious.html/embed#?secret=qSthaFIHvN" width="600" height="338" title="&#x201C;Yasha Levine: Recovered Economic History &#x2013; &#x201C;Everyone But an Idiot Knows That The Lower Classes Must Be Kept Poor, or They Will Never Be Industrious&#x201D;&#x201D; &#x2014; naked capitalism" data-secret="qSthaFIHvN" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript"&gt;
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</html><description>Yves here. This post by Yasha Levine ran last week, but it is sufficiently important that I thought it was worth featuring on NC. The conventional thinking on the so-called "lower orders" usually depicts them as deserving their fate (either due to lack of self-discipline and motivation, or in other ages, as genetically inferior), or as victims of circumstance. But Levine, citing a recent book by economic historian Michael Perelmen, points to another strain of thought: that self-sufficient peasants were indolent, and it would be better for them to reduce their income so as to force them to work harder. God forbid that anyone other that the aristocrats have the luxury of a lot of leisure time!   By Yasha Levine, an editor of The eXiled. You can reach him at levine [at] exiledonline.com.. Cross posted from The eXiled ...everyone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will never be industrious. &#x2014;Arthur Young; 1771 By Yasha Levine, an editor of The eXiled. You can reach him at levine [at] exiledonline.com.. Cross posted from The eXiled  ...everyone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will never be industrious.  &#x2014;Arthur Young; 1771</description></oembed>

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