For the Edification of Governor Brown: “Income Inequality in the Roman Empire”

A subscriber forwards this article by Tim de Chant, a science writer.

In the piece, he examines an academic study that measures how much wealth was concentrated in how few hands during the height of the Roman Empire in 150 C.E.*

At a December 13 press conference, Gov. Jerry Brown, holder of a 1961 degree in classics from the University of California at Berkeley, said the current gulf between America’s haves and have-nots is akin to Ancient Rome where “it was the same fight between the aristocrats and the plebians.” 

Not exactly  — as De Chant and the study by Walter Schiedel and Steven Friesen show. 

*(“C.E.” is Common Era,  a less  Christianity-centric synonym for A.D.)

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