What happened in the Roman Empire was that, at a certain point, rich land owners bought out small farmers throughout Italy, and these ex-farmers moved to Rome to become the first urban proletariat that the Roman state had to support with the grain dole. In effect, you had a huge number of people who were no longer able to support themselves.
We are now witnessing the modern version of this with the US government providing everyone who makes less than 75k with “free” money. Unfortunately, nothing is really free. There will be consequences.
Henry's Views 