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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vaxalon" data-source="post: 67795" data-attributes="member: 789">Middle class wages, middle class valuesIf you're willing to put in middle-class economics, are you also willing to put in the sociopolitical changes that a strong middle class caused (and are still causing) in the real world?The appearance of a strong middle class in 12th century Flanders, Venice, and other trading powers of medieval europe had far-reaching effects.  The more widespread wealth also meant more widespread power, and the autocratic monarchies started to lose power to the trading guilds.  The gradual development of modern democracies can be traced directly to the growth of the middle class in Western culture.  Public literacy increases, and with it the creation of libraries, universities, and the printing press.How do you reconcile a middle-class wage given to someone who doesn't have the political power to keep it?  Clearly, in any feudal society, it is in the interest of the lord to confiscate anything, whether it be money, magic, or weapon, that would give his serfs any measure of power.  So if you use some sense of "realism" to increase the wages across the board, then it would be unrealistic not to give them an across-the-board increase in power as well.</blockquote>