When there are too many elites, chaos follows. In essence, this is historian Peter Turchin's theory of elite overproduction. Tracing the history of civilizations around the world, he finds that an oversupply of elites is one of the strongest predictors of social unrest.

As Götz Aly explains in his book, Why the Germans? Why the Jews?, this is a key part of the what happened in Germany between the wars. In the 1920s, the liberal Weimar government opened up access to universities. Many families sent their sons to study for the first time. By 1931, a third of graduates could not find jobs in their fields. Frustrated Christian students turned on their Jewish counterparts, whose representation in white-collar jobs was out of all proportion to their tiny share of the population.  The Nazis promised affirmative action for Christians and against Jews. Students were among Hitler's first and most fervent supporters.

Turchin argues that the situation is similar in the United States today. There are too many university graduates for too few professional jobs. Disappointed ambition and intense competition appears to be driving unrest today. This explosive combination of anger among young elites explains political upheaval from Occupy Wallstreet to identity politics and the social justice movement.