Seems to put the nix on democracy right there.
If there is a large disparity, the poor will rapidly grow in number, as inequality inevitably feeds more inequality, and then you would have rule by the poor. Which would result in the rich purchasing the ruling elite or simply taking over the government and forming an oligarchy, to protect their wealth. Everything is playing out, exactly according to their predictions. It's uncanny.
Plato suggested society should not have anyone wealthier than 4x the poorest citizen. Anything above that was destined to quickly collapse. As politics follows economy, it doesn't lead it.
Middle-class dominated economies, with high rates of private property ownership (particularly land), tend to be well-governed and free. That was also what the Founder's considered the ideal. Everything else well be poorly-governed and/or tyrannical.
(Land because it is controlling physical territory that makes you part of the sovereign.)
They considered "rich elite" an oxymoron. The rich are preoccupied with their own physical wealth, hustling, nepotism, etc., whereas a true elite would be thinking about nobler things and would be grateful to spend their life serving the public selflessly.
Plato suggested society should not have anyone wealthier than 4x the poorest citizen. Anything above that was destined to quickly collapse. As politics follows economy, it doesn't lead it.
Middle-class dominated economies, with high rates of private property ownership (particularly land), tend to be well-governed and free. That was also what the Founder's considered the ideal. Everything else well be poorly-governed and/or tyrannical.
(Land because it is controlling physical territory that makes you part of the sovereign.)
They considered "rich elite" an oxymoron. The rich are preoccupied with their own physical wealth, hustling, nepotism, etc., whereas a true elite would be thinking about nobler things and would be grateful to spend their life serving the public selflessly.
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