income
             spread. This created a perfect environment for many conflicts to arise
             Iran's elite class consisted of wealthy land owners,
             intelligencia, military leaders, politicians, and diplomats. The Elite
             continued to support the monarchy and the Shah. The peasants were
             victim of unfulfilled political expectations, surveillance by the
             secret police, and the severe social and economic problems that
             resulted from modernization. The middle class favored socialism over
             capitalism, because capitalism in their view supported the elite, and
             does not benefit the lower classes. The middle class was the most
             changeable element in the group, because they enjoyed some of the
             privileges of the elite, which they would like to protect. At the same
             time, they believed that they had been cheated by the elite out of
             their share of the industrialization wealth (Orwin 43).
             About this time, the middle class, which included students,
             technocrats, and modernist professionals, became discontent with
             the economy. The key event should have further stabilized the royal
             dictatorship, but the increase in oil prices and oil income beginning
             in 1974 caused extreme inflation. This was due to the investment
             strategy followed by the Shah, which led to a spectacular 42% growth
             rate in 1974. (Cottam 14). And because of the Shah's support structure
             which enabled the new rich to benefit from inflation, the government
             effort to deal with inflation was aimless. Poor Iranians and Iranians
             with a fixed income suffered major losses in real income. Better
             standards of living were no longer visible. Thus, the majority of the
             Iranian people developed a revolutionary predisposition.
             As the middle class became discontent in Iran throughout the
             1970's, the desertion of intellectuals could be found in great excess.
             Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini represented muc...