In the movie Titanic they make a big deal about the class inequality on board the ship.
The wealthy class were taken care of and given preferential treatment when it came to lifeboats and safety when the Titanic was sinking.
That’s how it was during the actual events. The only difference between the movie and real life is that no one seemed to care about the third class passengers during the sinking of the ship or in the reporting of the incident afterwards.
The unwritten rule was that if the ship goes down, the women and children go first. That was mostly true, but not for everyone.
There was a higher loss rate for third class children than for first class men on the ship. Only four women in the first class died, and three were by choice (to stay with their husbands). On the other hand, 15 women from the second class and 81 women from the third class died. Only one child from the first and second grades did not survive, but 23 of the 76 children in the third grade died.
The sinking of the Titanic naturally attracted a lot of interest from the public and the press. However, few reporters bothered to ask third-class survivors about their experiences.
Congress kept asking questions about how the Titanic sank, but they didn’t care about the lower class citizens either. Despite stories from survivors that people on the ship’s lower rungs were prevented from entering the boat deck, lawmakers did not investigate the matter during their investigation.
British officials stated that they could find no trace of discrimination against third-class passengers. They didn’t bother interviewing the third-class passengers who survived.
This wasn’t some big conspiracy. It was just how things worked at the time. Even the third class passengers themselves expected to be treated differently.
Walter Lord wrote about this phenomenon in his excellent book: A night you will never forget:
Even the third class passengers were not bothered by it. They expected class distinctions as part of the game. In any case, Olaus Abelseth regarded access to the boat deck as a privilege associated with first- and second-class passage… even as the ship was sinking. He was happy as long as they let him stay above deck.
This is hard to believe by today’s standards, but that’s how things were back then. Not only were the wealthy class treated differently, they were the celebrities of the time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Heer explains:
The Titanic was also the last stand of wealth and society at the center of public affection. In 1912 there were no movie, radio or television stars; sports figures were still out of the spotlight; and the café society was completely unknown. Audiences depended on socially prominent people for all the vicarious glamor that enriches dull lives.
This concern was fully appreciated by the press. When the Titanic set sail, the New York Times featured the prominent passengers on its front page. After she sank, the New York American broke the news on April 16 with a lead almost entirely devoted to John Jacob Astor; at the end it was mentioned that 1,800 others had also been lost.
We face wealth inequality today, but it’s hard to believe how much worse things were back then:
The 190 families in the first class were attended by 23 maids, eight servants, and several nurses and governesses—not to mention hundreds of stewards and stewardesses. These personal servants had their own lounge on C Deck, so no one would have to be embarrassed about striking up a conversation with a handsome stranger only to find out he was Henry Sleeper Harper’s dragoman.
Or take the arrival of the survivors in New York. Mrs. Astor was met by two cars, containing two doctors, a trained nurse, a secretary and Vincent Astor. Mrs. George Widener was met not by car, but by a special train, consisting of a private Pullman, another car for ballast and a locomotive. Mrs. Charles Hays was also met by a special train, including two passenger cars and two coaches.
Lord concludes that the Titanic was the end of an era for the disgustingly wealthy class:
The Titanic effectively put an end to this way of life. It was never the same again. First the war, then the income tax, took care of that.
This may seem hard to believe, given current inequality.
In America, the top 10% control two-thirds of all wealth. The top 1% owns almost a third of all wealth, while the top 1% of the top 1% (the top 0.1%) owns almost 14% of all money.
Some people think that inequality is the root of all our problems.
Others assume that without wealth inequality we wouldn’t see as much progress and innovation.
No matter how you feel about it, this is probably not something that is going away.
Inequality has always been a feature, not a bug, of the system in which we operate.
It’s been like this for a long time.
Further reading:
How bad is wealth inequality in America?
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