Periods of great inequality are good for social theorising. Last year Charles Murray, a libertarian columnist and pundit, warned in "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010" that mating among people of similar means is increasing the divide between a motivated elite and a listless underclass. In "Twilight of the Elites: America after Meritocracy", another commentator, Christopher Hayes, showed how the elite are using their resources to circumvent the meritocracy and establish a permanent upper class.
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