Prior to the Ancient Greek democracy (beginning 600 BC) there were no democracies. Mostly societies were in the total control of kings or groups of influential persons (oligarchs). Sometimes they were quite benevolent. Cyrus, King of the vast Persian Empire (500 BC) was by any standard very benevolent. His government was run by rules and laws all handed down from the top. There was no participation by the common man.

Under these conditions there is rarely a middle class of any size. Essentially a significant middle class did not exist prior to democracies and even democracy does not assure a middle class. In those days (and still) the rich and powerful accumulated the wealth and squeezed the poor for more and more until the situation often became intolerable. Rebellion often occurred.

In Ancient Greece along came a man named Solon (@ 600 BC). His impact on the world is, in my opinion, unmatched to this day. Under Athenian law, at the time of Solon, if a loan went into default the creditor could seize the debtor and his family and sell them as slaves to pay off the debt. Solon's first reform was forbidding mortgages on bodies. Even with the consent of the debtor, the creditor could no longer legally enslave him and his family. Those who had already become slaves were liberated and those who had been sold to foreigners were purchased back and returned to Athens as free men.

Solon made it law that anyone who refused to take sides in a revolution would lose all civil rights. By this law he made sure that the good would resist the bad and not hide hoping to save themselves, or wait until they could see which side will win. Of all the laws that Solon was able to enact this one intrigues me the most. Could a Hitler or a Stalin have retained power if there had been a universal reaction to them at the very beginning as required by Solon's law?

Can one imagine the impact of all this on the rich? They lost considerable wealth and influence. I remind you that Solon himself was from a well to do family. He instituted many other reforms among them setting up a Supreme Court (the first) and the cancellation of all mortgages on property.

I have recounted here only a few of Solon's many reforms. His was the beginning of the world's first democracy. One cannot imagine a more impressive achievement than that of Solon.

Note that today we are, in effect, if not eliminating mortgages, as Solon did, we are financially helping the mostly poor mortgage holders. This, of course, will be paid for by taxes on the middle class. And along with the billions of Iraq war debt will be paid for not only by you but by your children and grandchildren so monumental is the national debt.

Recession and depression, then and now, assists the rich and powerful to accumulate further wealth. For example foreclosed houses can often be purchased at a steep discount. The wealthy can do this and can afford to await an upturn in the economy with little downside risk.

Theodore Theodorsen