[hmkpoker]

[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps the free rider problem is good then? Or perhaps we'd have a society with all worker controlled and owned firms if it were not for the free rider problem. Or perhaps people think both violence and inequality are wrong?

Anyway, here's a question for you and HMK: Did the civil rights movement occur in the 1950s and 1960s (as opposed to sometime during the previous 90 years) because A) Minority groups were not hopping mad about segregation and discrimination until the 1950s or B) Some other reason?

[/ QUOTE ]

I said before that oppression of the masses is unstable because it tends to lead to class conflict until some sort of social homeostasis is achieved. Just how much oppression and for how long it must occur is required before society hits "critical mass" is something I can't even begin to describe. It seems obvious that it doesn't happen immediately, but beyond that, I doubt anyone has the necessary understanding of social science to come up with an accurate prediction. The French and Russians, to the best of my knowledge, were oppressed for even longer before they said "we're not gonna take it."