the elite control almost all the wealth, thus they control the govts and the military..
they really don't care if the rabble live in squalor and absolute danger every single day.
infact, they enjoy it...
as long as there is no middle class, no group wanting a little bit of the pie, a little vacation house or the ability to walk the wilds and fish the waters...
as long as "we" stay away from them even if we are restricted to our houses and our neighborhoods, the they stay "happy".
No matter what time in history, no matter what part of the world and no matter the culture, elites are as they are today.
That is what led to the killing of the Russian royal family and birth of Leninism/communism, the French revolution and played a part in the American Revolution.
After England was almost destroyed during WWII by German bombing, when the war ended, the aristocrats climbed right back into their aristocratic perches and started ruling their subjects as if nothing happened.
Looking at the 10 plagues that God hit Egypt with to get them to let the Jews go. The only time the elites changed was the “plague of the 1st born.” Nothing chances with them until they have skin in the game and feel pain.