On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 11:42:40 -0500, Jeff Morris
wrote:


I think that's something everyone can agree on. Its been the way of
the world for thousands of years. Even the great "democracies" of the
past, such as Athens, only survived thanks to a large slave population
and were controlled by wealthy families.

Uh, the same situation pertained in Revolutionary America. The
slave-owning merchant/farmer class could afford the leisure created by
essentially free labour to mull over republican democracy.

The results turned out better than in Republican Athens or Rome for
the average (wage) slave, but the irony is that indentured or slave
labour made democracy more likely.

R.