> It also optimizes for leaders who will maintain a middle class.

And yet, since the early 70s, the middle class in the US has continually eroded—with no end in sight. So much for theory.

Yes, but put that in perspective. The middle class in the US today is significantly larger and better off than in most dictatorships in the world, and there are structural reasons for that.

Most of the middle class in the US is one serious health issue away from bankruptcy - and doing far less well than in many European countries.

The real trick is keeping the middle class in the US convinced that its situation and prospects are much better than they really are.

When that trick stops working, so will democracy.

Those European countries are also democracies, though. In many cases, they are more democratic, because they don't have undemocratic features like the Senate.

The Senate is not meant to be representation by population - it is representation by geography. A different slice of the country that isn't undemocratic.

Since both houses of congress need to agree on a bill, both of those different slices need to agree to pass a law.

> The Senate is not meant to be representation by population

Yes, it is deliberately anti-democratic.

> it is representation by geography.

By political subdivisions, actually.

> A different slice of the country that isn't undemocratic.

It is absolutely and deliberately antidemocratic by initial design.

No, "anti-democratic" would be a dictatorship.

This is just a different slice of society - one that doesn't favor the political party you are in favor of, and so you're happy to miscategorize it.

...but be careful. Eroding the public perception of legitimacy in the American system won't have the impact you intent. The only realistic way to convert to a pure representation-by-population system would be a revolution - and those seldom produce any form of democracy at all. ...and usually involve quite a bit of death and destruction in the process of NOT achieving their goals.

Exactly, they work to maintain it despite forces working to erode it.

What are the policies they use for this? Education loans? I know the tax brackets help keep well paid professionals from transitioning too easily to living off of assets, ( which is what I would call upper class). If every good doctor and lawyer graduated to idle rich, we'd have only bad ones, and a bigger wealth gap.

Nice; a sufficient high school civics curriculum in 18 minutes.