Some interesting themes in this thread; the intersections of poverty, wealth, violence, misallocation of resources, and solving problems/building...

The perceptions of the hoi polloi vs the the perceptions of the few? The numbers of the masses vs the numbers of the few?

Wasn't a portion of the French Revolution, and isn't a portion of the Arab Spring about these themes? From there it seems to be a short walk to 'solutions/responses' such as Colonialism, the New Deal, community policing (it comes up as neighborhood watch in wiki), COIN, ARRA, and of course Democracy...