The Titanic Inequality – A Treasure of Common Sense

In the movie Titanic they make a big deal about class inequality on the ship.

The wealthy class was looked after and given special treatment when it came to lifeboats and safety as the Titanic sank.

It was also 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 or in the coverage of the incident after the fact.

The unwritten rule was that when the ship went down the women and children first. That was especially true but not for everyone.

There was a higher casualty rate of Third Class children than First Class men on board. Only four women died in the First Phase, and three chose it (to stay with their husbands). On the other hand, 15 women of the Second Stage and 81 of the Third Stage died. Only one child in the First and Second Class did not come out alive, but 23 of the 76 children who were in the Third Class died.

The sinking of the Titanic obviously attracted a lot of public and media attention. However, few reporters bothered to ask the Third Class survivors anything about their experiences.

Congress held questions about how the Titanic sank but did not care about the lower class citizens. Despite accounts from survivors that people on the lower decks of the ship were prevented from entering the boathouse, legislators did not look into the matter during their investigation.

British officials announced that they could find no trace of discrimination against Third Class passengers. They did not bother to interview the third class passenger who survived.

This was not a big conspiracy. That was the way things worked in those days. Even Third Class passengers themselves expected to be treated differently.

Walter Lord wrote about this incident in his excellent book, A Night to Remember:

Even the Third Class passengers were not worried. They expected to be categorized as part of the game. Olaus Abelseth, at least, considered access to the Boat Deck a privilege that accompanied First and Second Class passage … even when the ship was sinking. He was satisfied as long as they let him stay on the stairs.

This is hard to believe by today’s standards, but that was the way things were back then. The wealthy class were not only treated differently, they were the celebrities of the time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Lord explains:

The Titanic was also the last place of wealth and society in the middle of the public interest. In 1912 there were no movie, radio or television stars; sportsmen were more than pale; and the café community was completely unknown. Society depended on social elites for all the luxuries that enriched the poor life.

This concern is fully informed by the media. When the Titanic sailed, the New York Times listed the famous passengers on the front page. After the sinking, the New York American issued news on April 16 with a lead entirely devoted to John Jacob Astor; it eventually said another 1,800 were also missing.

We have wealth inequality in this day and age but it’s hard to believe how bad things were back then:

The 190 families in First Class were attended by 23 maids, eight valets, and various nurses and governesses—in addition to hundreds of managers and executives. These servants had their lounge on C Deck, so that no one need be embarrassed by striking up a conversation with a handsome stranger, only to find that he was Henry Sleeper Harper’s dragoman.

Or take the arrival of the survivors in New York. Mrs. Astor was met by two cars, which were carrying two doctors, a trained nurse, a secretary and Vincent Astor. Mrs. George Widener was met not by a car but by a special train—comprising a private Pullman, another ballast car, and a train. Mrs. Charles Hays was also met by a special train, consisting of two private cars and two coaches.

Lord concludes that the Titanic was the end of the decade of the obscenely rich:

The Titanic effectively ended this way of life. It was never the same again. First the war, then the income tax, ensured that.

This may seem hard to believe given the state of inequality today.

In America the top 10% control two-thirds of all wealth. The top 1% holds about one-third of all wealth while the top 1% of the top 1% (the top 0.1) has about 14% of all money.

Some people think that inequality is the root of all our problems.

Some think that without wealth inequality we will not see progress and innovation.

No matter how you feel about it, this is probably not going away.

Inequality has always been a feature, not a bug, of the system in which we operate.

It has been like this for a long time.

Further reading:
How Bad Is Wealth Inequality in America?