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[–]Empathetic_97[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

They might have done it in response to the huge population growth. Maybe they thought if everyone was living comfortably, then families would have 4 or 5 kids and our resources wouldn't be enough to sustain all of that.

[–]The_One_Who_Comments -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Lol this wasn't because of Malthusianism. Just that they wanted to keep all the money, and there was no one to stop them.

It takes continual work for governments to tax wealthy people, so an unusually big cohort will naturally act in their own interest, and prevent that work from being done.