There is a film called "Pyramids of Waste" which traces the history of Artificial Scarcity. It is no longer on youtube, (those good 'ol days are over), but you can probably locate it elsewhere. Keeping people in their hamster-wheels goes back to the turn of the century (the last one), when production was reaching saturation. "Planned obsolescence" was created to manufacture the need for more work and more purchases - of the same thing over and over. Expanding the "consumer population" and resource bases was part of this, hence the need for WWI to build the infrastructure (per a report of the early Carnegie Foundation minutes by Reece Committee members investigating the foundations).
Our "left and right" today, to the extent that they are not completely artificial in the DLC erea, are essentially an argument over whether Business or Government should "manage" our lives for us. Goodness Sakes, the "proles" can't take care of their own affairs.
Obviously, when I say "left," I'm not speaking of "real" lefties, who support greater autonomy for "we proles" and hope to take the Democratic Party away from the "We Know What's Best For You" Elites. I'm talking about the ones who "believe" what the party's current "leadership" feeds them without nary a critical thought.