>>> Was there an incident/outbreak in history which affected all (or the majority population) and the rich were substantially affected?
the french revolution?
the french revolution?
I mean, being rich or a "Kulak" was a very loose definition of rich and was used more as a political bludgeon, but the idea holds.
What followed made Karl Marx write the "The Class of Struggles" [2]
Excerpt from the wiki: "The industrial bourgeoisie still occupied a comparatively privileged position within society and government and this fact, Marx argues, placed them in essentially the main camp as the financial bourgeoisie"
You see the same pattern emerged.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution#Reign_of_Ter...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Class_Struggles_in_France,...
Note: I do not subscribe to the communist ideology but the fact someone notable had observed the class struggles means common people might have felt more-or-less the same as lot of poor or middle class people today.
We, on the other hand, were happy to move on to a new future containing the best of the revolutionary and the ancien régime, instead of blindly insisting on returning to the status quo ante. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24145281
Note: poor and middle class people today[1] are almost by definition sans-culottes[2].
[1] with the notable exception of those who wear pedal pushers! Due to stretch fabrics, even jodhs and breeches are typically full length.