The very poor could not be counted on to support the government. They were like the slaves and Indians-invisible most of the time, but frightening to the elite if they started an uprising. Other citizens, though, might support the system. Farmers who owned their land, better-paid laborers, and urban office workers were paid just enough, and flattered just enough, that in a crisis they would be loyal to the system and the upper classes that dominated it. Big
( Howard Zinn )
[ A Young People's History of ]
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