“instead of an aristocracy of wealth”
Thomas Jefferson proposed “instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger, than benefit, to society, to make an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society, and scattered with equal hand through all its conditions….”
What we have now is still an aristocracy of wealth, but also an aristocracy of merit, in particular an aristocracy of verbal and mathematical merit, aka as intelligence, although with ample room and ample recompense for those talented ones who would entertain us. We are still without an aristocracy of virtue, perhaps even more so than in Jefferson’s time.
