GR

I have been doing quite a bit of research lately for the book that I am writing, studying the poor law period in England and the American Colonies. What is fascinating is the series of wage and price controls to keep all but the nobility and landed gentry in their place and prevent them from gaining power due to wealth. These controls worked well until there was a small hiccup in the system due to food shortage, or a small downtick in the economy. At that point there was a large increase in the poor and crime. Interestingly there was little problem in this country in comparison during the early years of independence, but the same pattern reoccurred in the turn of the last century. The majority of the "Robber Barrens" started off as paupers with a few coming from the middle class, but had great influence in politics at which time those in power attempted to push them back down. These days the effect of regulation on the economy has the same affect as can be seen when fuel prices rose a few years back which helped to propell the forclosier crises.