As far as I can tell, Turchin himself doesn't see this as a bad thing but part of a social-corrective element. That when elite overproduction happens, you start to get more of your Lenins, Luxembourgs, and Robbespierres, who have both the will and the wit take advantage of the instability in order to overthrow the social hierarchy under which they have been placed. That, in a society with ideal distribution of its production, these figures need not exist and would be better doing other things. But that their very existence is a symptom of wider systemic issues and they are the means of overcoming them.
A lot of mishmash theory but not much evidence supporting it.<p>Just taking the paragraph on Australia as an example. It just says less than half the money goes to academics. What is this in comparison to? What are the rates in other countries or industries? Is it even relevant to the idea of elite overproduction?<p>Over a quarter of Australian University students are international students. Are the remaining domestic students all elites and are there numbers overproduced?<p>What is even the benchmark for elite production