Erich Fromm on Property, Profit and Conformity

"After the revolutionary period of the fifties and sixties, society regrouped itself, as always, into High, Middle, and Low. But the new High group, unlike all its forerunners, did not act upon instinct but knew what was needed to safeguard its position. It had long been realized that the only secure basis for oligarchy is collectivism. Wealth and privilege are most easily defended when they are possessed jointly. The so-called ’abolition of private property’ which took place in the middle years of the century meant, in effect, the concentration of property in far fewer hands than before: but with this difference, that the new owners were a group instead of a mass of individuals. Individually, no member of the Party owns anything, except petty personal belongings. Collectively, the Party owns everything in Oceania, because it controls everything, and disposes of the products as it thinks fit." George Orwell

"In life, a decent person has so many ways to get ahead. A bad guy with the same smarts and drive has all those same ways open to them, but also some others that a decent person wouldn't go down. So, they have more chances to get ahead. As a result of this negative selection of character, the higher social classes become enriched with scoundrels. The better and more influential a social class is, the worse its average ethical level becomes. Only this circumstance can explain why the world has not been a paradise for at least five thousand years. One must know this if one wants to understand world history." Hermann Julius Oberth