Chapter 249: Chapter 249: The History That Follows Chapter 249: Chapter 249: The History That Follows “Can you speculate on the reasons for the outbreak of civil unrest?” Ganyador paused for a moment, his gaze drifting leisurely over to Zhang Yuan.
He had observed a part of the human development process, which involved war occurring far more frequently than it did for the Glizerians. The complexity of history was also much more intricate for humans than for the Glizerians.
Zhang Yuan pondered deeply and calculated, savoring the historical inevitability he discerned.
He began to speak, “I think there are many reasons, but the main one is still the failure of management systems, ideologies, and particularly distribution systems, to keep up with the sudden surge in productivity.”
The initial electrification meant that it was possible to use nuclear power for electricity and produce various materials, but it didn’t mean that the resources had already been produced. This was the Stone Age, after all, and in such a state of abject poverty, the amount of production needed was vast.
This presented a problem of who would get rich first and who would get rich later.
No matter how powerful the Universal Factory was, there were only a mere 13 units. As a highly capable 3D printer, even with its immense production capacity, it was definitely not cost-effective to directly produce consumer goods.
The best method was to use the Universal Factory to produce various machines to aid in expanded production, thereby greatly improving productivity.
Making it impossible to produce all the material resources the Glizerians needed all at once, nor to realize a wealthy, modernized lifestyle for all citizens instantaneously.
But under certain individual selfish intents, the productive capacity of the Universal Factory wasn’t entirely used to produce production materials; some high officials and nobles had already begun to enjoy the lifestyle of the Electric Era.
This created a stark contrast.
Bear in mind… this was originally the Stone Age, where many Glizerians were still grazing in the fields!
At first, there was widespread poverty and low productivity, and no matter how rich the wealthy were, that was all they had. Under a social support system, wealth was accumulated by Clans, which was akin to a kind of collective economy. Once individuals aged and died, their wealth would be released back into society or into their own Clan, so the disparity between individuals wasn’t particularly large.
The rich could only secretly father a few illegitimate children to pass on a small portion of their wealth. Clan members turned a blind eye to this practice, after all, they had the ability to earn money.
As for entertainment, the intellectually inclined enjoyed Mathematics and other sophisticated pursuits, while the common folk engaged in carving, painting, singing operas, and such… In any case, everyone did their own thing, without interfering with each other.
But now it was different…
The gap between the Stone Age and the Electric Era was so vast that describing it as a complete upheaval would not be an exaggeration. New lifestyles, entertainment modes, food, clothing, homes–every aspect of daily life–underwent sweeping changes!
Such a transformation also meant that the wealth disparity, once tolerable, suddenly underwent drastic change!
At first, these new material resources could only be enjoyed by a few; there was no way to distribute them universally. Therefore, those of lower social status suddenly developed an acute sense of imbalance.
Zhang Yuan tapped his fingers lightly, “I understand now; it’s the vast wealth gap brought about by the Universal Factory that accumulated energy for the civil unrest. Well, the wealth disparity between the Stone Age and the Electric Era is indeed a bit too extreme.”
It’s normal for a civilization to have wealth disparities, as individuals differ in abilities, and it’s inevitable that some don’t live as well as others.
But the greater the wealth disparity in a society, the more prone it is to instability.
With the advent of the Universal Factory, in just two or three years, the Gini coefficient of the Gleize Civilization skyrocketed to an unbearable level for those at the bottom.
Although the Glizerians were leisurely and free, that didn’t mean they lacked desire. Bombarded by a flood of material resources, everyone started getting restless. No one wanted to continue living in the primitive era, not even for one day longer…
Under this restless social current, the already less powerful government authorities saw their control significantly decline, their restraining influence on citizens diminishing, and even the Managers themselves became helpless and mired in internal chaos amid such a major impact.
In addition to wealth disparity, there was a second internal factor: The previously manual labor-centric economic system began to seem extraordinarily outdated, with various economic policies and cultures resulting in a lot of confusion.
Take a simple example: Previously, the market’s goods were limited to primary commodities like food, bone tools, and handicrafts, which had relatively low added value. Many common folks relied on producing these goods for a living, which had been very stable over tens of thousands of years.
But goods produced by the Universal Factory had higher added value. In this Stone Age, the added value of a car should be so high that no one could afford it!
The impact of a large number of new products made everyone want to buy the latest products.
The prices of previously available goods plummeted; low-value goods simply couldn’t be sold anymore. The chaos in monetary policy soon led to deflation, and the economy completely collapsed.
The collapse of the economy led to some artisanal merchants incurring losses and becoming unable to sustain themselves.
Although technology had progressed, the emergence of people unable to support themselves was an inconceivable yet expected phenomenon. After all, the quality and work capacity of the vast majority of ordinary people were still stuck in the Stone Age, totally unable to keep up with the times. They only knew how to do a bit of simple manual work, and now, suddenly, handicrafts were devalued, resulting in immediate unemployment.
The government of the time lacked the experience and organizational ability to deal with such economic crises, reacting too slowly, causing the crisis to deepen.
These administrators had no concept of economics in their minds; they did not understand why the number of destitute people kept increasing.
This group of unemployed poor could either leave the city and continue the life of Primitive people…
Or… they could achieve their demands through violence!
“These two reasons, like two compressed springs, the tighter the pressure, the greater the force when released,” sighed Zhang Yuan, looking up at the white ceiling, lost in thought…
Regrettably, that interstellar civilization had only taught them some scientific knowledge, but none about systems… Even though the Glizerians were intelligent, without experiencing it, they couldn’t possibly know about such matters, much less react in time.
Civilization’s progress was never achieved overnight; with technology developed, it was just External Power that had drastically improved. Without the support of Inner Strength, it was equivalent to a hollow tree–seeming tall and formidable yet falling at the slightest touch, or even collapsing on its own.