Analysis of the success stories (Chartist Britain, Reform Russia, the Progressive Era in the United States, and other cases[15]) is a source of both optimism and pessimism. The optimistic take is that it is possible to shut down the wealth pump and rebalance social systems without resorting to a revolution or catastrophic war. Death may be the “great leveler,” as Scheidel argues, but it is not the only one. Fear—or putting it a bit more charitably, intelligent foresight—can also work, and did work in the success stories.
