Once plutocrats were lauded for generating wealth that would, we were told, trickle down to benefit the rest of us. Today we blame them for causing the 2008 crash and for selling off our housing stock to overseas speculators. Our idea of what constitutes the good life has shifted, too: most of us now aspire to a “fuller kind of wealth” that involves enjoying life, having happy relationships and doing work that helps others. We used to envy the lifestyle of the fabulously rich – Learjets, private islands, underground gyms: now it all seems superficial.

In short, many people now aspire to the Epicurean ideal of moderation and mutual inter-dependence, even if they cannot put a name to their feelings and think Epicurus is a catering company. It’s clear that the “trickle-down” economic model was always a sham, thought up at the behest of the grabitariat. Media hacks are still paid to tell us how wonderful the new, (undercover) political bosses are, but who really believes them any more? What is clear is that on both sides of the Atlantic we are losing the old, democratic ethos and passing control to a small, self-perpetuating group, possibly with personalties somewhere on the autistic spectrum (that is, they don’t care about human beings). The Russian and French aristocracy of old exhibited similar traits. So- called “think tanks” are employed to think up new ways of packaging the news and the state of the economy in order to keep the poorly informed poorly informed.  For how much longer?  The current trend is politically dangerous, but this seems to matter not to those incapable of forethought.