I suppose I could take my normal cynical view and posit that the oligarchy we've been trying to breed in this country again for the past three decades would be happy as clams to weed out the genetically "weak" and poor by letting them rot and die. After all, enough serfs make a light workload for the privileged ... but too many are just that many more mouths to feed. (Hence, you get the almost-constant cycle of war to kill off the surplus.)