What developments tended to make society less equal and more hierarchical?

Question

What developments tended to make society less equal and more hierarchical?

Answer 1

Less equal and more hierarchical than what? For what times and places would you like a reply?

Armor made society less equal. Only the wealthy could afford armor. Today, handgun ownership tends to make society American more equal, but tanks make Chinese society less equal. Military aircraft make society less equal. Shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons make soldiers more equal.

Specie money made society more equal, because it opened markets. Fiat money makes the issuing government (and the oligarchs controlling that government) more powerful.

Banning titles of nobility makes society more equal. Serfdom, slavery, and high rates of income taxation make society less equal.

"Electronic brains" in 1960s-style computer facilities made society more hierarchical. Personal computers giving millions more computational power than NASA used to land men on the moon makes society more equal.

Easy Internet access makes society more equal. Political Internet censorship makes Red China less equal.

Answer 2

money.

materials.

advertisment.

things like t.v., computers, radio, mtv...

cars

basically everything that we have now.