We don't have to sit by and watch our meritocracy be replaced by a permanent aristocracy, and our democracy be undermined by dynastic wealth.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.
One of the great political and economic challenges of our time is figuring out the balance between wealth that benefits society and wealth that distorts.
The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
We want capitalism and market forces to be the slave of democracy rather than the opposite.
We cannot run a democracy without a strong middle class.
What point is there to all the wealth and power that America may have if they can't look after its own?
Market forces and capitalism by themselves aren't sufficient to ensure the common good and to limit the concentration of wealth at levels that are compatible with democratic ideals.
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.
America is a meritocracy.
We stand a better chance with aristocracy, whether hereditary or elective, than with monarchy.