There's Nothing New under the Sun, or is that the One?

To constrain the brute force of the people...governments deem it necessary to keep them down by hard labor, poverty and ignorance, and to take from them, as from bees, so much of their earnings, as that unremitting labor shall be necessary to obtain a sufficient surplus barely able to sustain a scanty and miserable life. And these earnings they apply to maintain their privileged orders in splendor and idleness, to fascinate the eyes of the people, and excite in them an humble adoration and submission, as to an order of superior beings. -- Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson was talking about European governments in his day. I'm not.