Great essay Hive. More pithy than most of my essays, and thank you so much for the plug. I might have put Bill Gates' lake house on top of the hill, but then seeing the White House above the shanties, reminded me of my first gig in DC, when one could still see them from the steps of the Congress (and the other end of Penn. Ave). Gates of course has several compounds tucked away where the peasants can't find them. Not to mention owning the lion's share of the farmland in the US. Today's landed gentry do not rely on the Divide Right of Kings, but they did expropriate the public patrimony just as ruthlessly (e.g., turning the information superhighway into a toll road). The new Techno-Rentier really are the worse. I like your call to action, while you're writing to your congressperson, don't forget the Glass-Steagall? post-card from my latest missive: https://medium.com/@daneke/breaking-the-birfurcated-economy-financiers-and-the-crisis-of-public-imagination-fee35d84cc43. SERFS UP!!!! PS: When a current day lord in the UK was asked the secret of his success, he said "well it really helped to have a relative who was friendly with William the Conqueror".