There an elite few controlled all the money, and the middle classes simply had no economic room to exist. The result was patronage, on a scale equivalent to a welfare system, with ordinary Romans queuing each day to recieve a daily "wage" in return for loyalty / obligations / it's complicated - http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage_in_ancient_Rome

I mention it simply because Rome also could afford to pay all its citizens a living wage, but instead choose to keep the money in the hands of the powerful and use it for political purposes

Trends do not make a destiny.