Hello! I was just wondering if I could get your opinion on whether or not it's plausible for the general public in my fantasy world to have 1970s-ish technology, while the state-controlled hospitals, military and other things have more modern technology that is not easily accessible? The country in question is a stratocracy. What kind of things should I consider when expanding this type of thing? Thanks in advance! :)
Tex: I’ll work in a little bit of a backwards order than I usually do, for this one - a statocracy will bring about a stratified society, where the lines are a little more rigid than some other types of governments, so yes, I think it would be entirely possible for state-controlled institutions to have nicer things.
This is more a question of how money is spent, and its flow, than anything else, because if you park the majority of your money into R&D whose results get funneled into institutions like hospitals and military bases, then the direct implication of that is that they will get the Shiny New Things first and most often.
I’d like you to consider not who benefits and how from this, but who doesn’t. What happens when critically life-saving medical supplies aren’t distributed across the country? What happens when only affluent areas get the public transportation, and the nice police, and the good education? What happens to those that don’t have any of those things?
Poverty can be construed as a traumatic event to an individual, regardless of age or time period of occurrence (childhood vs adulthood). A lack of adequate resources can impact academic achievement (Citation 1), nutritional outcomes of children (Citation 2), neurological development (Citation 3), success of socialization (Citation 4), a healthy weight (Citation 5), and access to healthcare (Citation 6).
Interestingly, this level of social inequality has a deleterious effect on the overall economy (Citation 7). This means that such a level of poverty, especially in a rigidly-defined society as a statocracy, would eventually unbalance your fantasy world’s entire society and cause unpleasant things as social unrest. What this means for the technology and other goods that have been sectioned off is up to you and your plot, however.
Citation 1 - Lacour, M., & Tissington, L. D. (2011). The effects of poverty on academic achievement. Educational Research and Reviews, 6(7), 522-527. PDF
Citation 2 - Bhattacharya, J., Currie, J., & Haider, S. (2004). Poverty, food insecurity, and nutritional outcomes in children and adults. Journal of health economics, 23(4), 839-862. PDF
Citation 3 - Young, E. (2020). The Psychological Impacts Of Poverty, Digested. Retrieved 18 December 2020. [Archived version]
Citation 4 - Mood, C., & Jonsson, J. O. (2016). The Social Consequences of Poverty: An Empirical Test on Longitudinal Data. Social indicators research, 127, 633–652. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-0983-9 PDF
Citation 5 - Chen, D., Jaenicke, E. C., & Volpe, R. J. (2016). Food Environments and Obesity: Household Diet Expenditure Versus Food Deserts. American journal of public health, 106(5), 881–888. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303048 PDF
Citation 6 - Peters, D. H., Garg, A., Bloom, G., Walker, D. G., Brieger, W. R., & Hafizur Rahman, M. (2008). Poverty and access to health care in developing countries. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1136(1), 161-171. PDF
Citation 7 - Nilsen, S. R. (2007). Poverty in America: Consequences for individuals and the economy: Testimony before the chairman, committee on ways and means, house of representatives. US Government Accountability Office. PDF [Archived version 1, 2]
