Even if things change this will be how it is, how it will continue to be. I think it is more accurately portrayed as either a spectrum or in Quintiles/Deciles. No matter what, changes, no changes, radical changes those at the top will take most of everything for themselves. You can even "eat the rich" and a new replacement crop of rich will emerge. Those at the bottom will always be under constant mortal threat, sickness and privation will be their lot. But for the meager aid the world provides 10's of millions more would have/will suffer and die. For those in the middle of the spectrum, the coming new dark age will be a gradual, slow rolling but speeding up recession. Not an apocalypse but a massive shift of the median toward poverty and deprivation.

TEK