Is America Becoming an Oligarchy? By Michael Tomasky

Democracy can’t flourish in a context of grotesque concentration of wealth. This idea is neither new nor radical nor alien. The founders generally  believed  that excess inherited wealth was fundamentally incompatible with democracy. They believed that There is, should be, a democratic element to capitalism — and an economic element to how we define democracy.  hey saw clearly the link between democratic health and general economic prosperity.   T hey were most concerned with inherited wealth, as was the Scottish economist Adam Smith, whom conservatives invoke constantly today but who would in fact be appalled by the propagandistic phrase “death tax” — in their time, inherited wealth was the oppressive economic problem."