Wealthy elites saw social-welfare state publicity as an antirevolutionary necessity

Evidence

The bottom line for Gilded Age business elites was that the most effective way to protect the original sin of that economic era was, as David Nasaw put it, “to circumscribe democracy.” They did this by lavishly funding their own political candidates as well as through the careful honing and aggressive dissemination of an ideological attack on the very notion of democracy’s right to interfere in the economic realm. Their industries were to be “self-regulating”: free to follow their own evolutionary laws. “Democracy,” they preached, “had its limits, beyond which voters and their elected representatives dared not trespass lest economic calamity befall the nation.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 343 (#expands, via linked claim)

But the new elite, who had amassed significantly more money and power than the old guard, flourished their wealth, distanced themselves from “the people,” and became suspicious of—even antagonistic toward—democracy, just as several of the founders had been. It was easier to be restrained, it seems, when the money was. In 1935 Du Bois described the spirit of this new ruling class: “Profit, income, uncontrolled power in My Business for My Property and for Me—this was the aim and method of the new monarchial dictatorship that displaced democracy in the United States.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 594 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: State-society interpenetration replaced deliberation with managed publicity aimed at passive consumers — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2376; Great wealth concentration made the American elite openly antidemocratic — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 594; Gilded Age elites circumscribed democracy to protect their economic regime — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 343 (+3 more)

Related

• Great wealth concentration made the American elite openly antidemocratic (similarity 0.90)
• Gilded Age elites circumscribed democracy to protect their economic regime (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• The welfare state’s success provoked conservative opposition to reverse it #corroborates (0.85)
• Gilded Age elites circumscribed democracy to protect their economic regime #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 343
• Great wealth concentration made the American elite openly antidemocratic #expands (0.78) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 594