an aristocracy? here? no, really, there is.
no shit, sherlock. not to minimize gou's posting.
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders ... 15s61.htmlyes, there is an aristocracy. Jefferson and Adams believed that they should be the rulers. Jefferson stated that there is a "natural" aristocracy among men. that is intriguing in and of itself. how does this natural aristocracy reveal itself? in an unrestrained capitalist political economy as practiced by the U.S. since the ascendancy of Ronald of Reagan imperious rex it manifests itself in tired, worn cliches and mythology. bootstraps, rising above, "I built this myself" are among the half-baked notions that populate the agitprop landscape. a closer study of trends by various social scientists, economists, lawyers etc reveals something far different. increasingly it has been shone that crucial determining factor in economic success, claiming through the quintiles as it were, is good luck in choosing one's parents.
for all of the bleated nonsense regarding improvement of the economy, whatever that means, job numbers are surely the worst. types of jobs, wages, who receives the benefits of increased production and what happens to those who have fallen into the gaping chasms, sorry, between the cracks are subjects written about in variously weighted tomes but generally ignored by the kabuki theatre of government. there most certainly is an aristocracy but more importantly there are power wielders. these as Rothkopf wrote are the "superclass". Rothkopf addressed them on the world level but they exist in goodly numbers on the national level particularly in the u.s.
the wielding of power is not done in some crass display of wealth although many do engage in such. rather it is done via agitprop, access and influence. all three methods are critical for the sham democracy to work in the favor of the superclass. I grant that in some instances members of the superclass work at cross-purposes to each other. this is because the superclass is not homogenous. there are members on the left as well as the right. we can see from various actions of congress as well as state legislators which part of the political spectrum is in ascendancy at which time in history.
anyone who thinks that the u.s. is not more class-ridden than England is fooling themselves. the yearning for class and climbing the rungs of the quintiles has been here since its inception.