Thank you for your well thought out response. We mostly agree but you seem to have a more European perspective. In Europe there is a big distinction between old money and new money. In America this distinction doesn't really exist. The American elite is mostly new money. The guys running Silicon Valley are all elite and are not freemen in any meaningful sense. They founded these companies for wealth and power, not for freedom. Warren Buffett is hybrid with elements of both. But Mark Zuckerberg is pure elite with no elements of a freeman at all. Same with Bill Gates. Yes Gates could program, but he had zero interest in quality software. An example of a financially successful freeman would be John Bogle, but these are rare.