A More Perfect Middle Class. Or, Diamonds are Forever - Stand for America®

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We talk a lot about the “middle class” often enough, implying a mid-point between an “upper class” and a “lower class.”

In this context, our reference to “class” is financial, not humanly substantial. We know that human value is not related to financial wealth. Indeed, Jesus said as much in The Parable of The Poor Widow’s Gift [ONE: 2178: R12:41; L21:1]. The woman who donated her last two coins had more human class than all the elegantly financially wealthy people who gave vast sums from their abundance. In the parable, Jesus finally answered the essential perennial question of “How much to give?” with an answer of sublime simplicity: “You are starting to give enough to others, at the point that it starts to hurt.“

It has to hurt, that’s how we know. It’s a rule of life: exercising the spirit is no different than exercising the body, and exercising the spirit is no different than exercising the mind. No pain, no gain. We have to feel the pain of some loss to know that we really gave up something, acknowledging that this is perhaps a statement of practicality rather than perfection.

So, when we talk about class—real human substantive class—it has nothing to do with finances. Real class is cut from virtue. Only the wise have clarity to see it—others tend to think class is about the other facets of life, being power, influence, civil station and money. Yes, the heights of human class are found in the lowly mangers of Jesus and the log cabins of Abraham Lincoln.

Regarding matters of financial class, in a capitalist system such as the United States—in this more perfect union of diverse peoples—the middle class is supposed to represent the wealth of the common man. It is theoretically supposed to be something of a diamond graph, with the few being financially richer and the few being financially poorer, and the strength of the economy in a broad balanced middle. As capitalists, we necessarily presume that there will always be financially richer people and financially poorer people. The terms “richer” and “poorer” are relative terms, and saying there will always be poor people does not necessarily imply financial destitution. The diamond graph structure is part of a capitalist structure, and suggesting otherwise is dysfunction to the premise of our founding economic philosophy. Moreover, we see that even communism and socialism are imperfect, having themselves failed to eliminate economic strata.

The key to the capitalist premise in the United States rests upon two related concepts, which are functions of each other: systemic capability and hope of improved condition.

Living happily in a capitalist society is really no different conceptually than venturers on a ship in the 1400s. The sailors must be convinced that the vessel’s framework with the captain provide the capability of achieving success, matched with some hope of good luck that they will be successful. The more their systemic capability is assured, the less they require hope; the less their capability is assured, the more they require hope.

But, here’s what we know: when capability and hope are both destitute, the sailors stop pulling, tend to grumble, the grumbles turn into anger, and the anger turns into mutiny.

In the United States, the vessel is the economic capitalist structure, which is supposed to be systemically framed to create and to sustain a strong middle class, creating incentives by a fair balance of inspiration balanced with desperation, or, perhaps hope balanced with fear.

To the extent that the diamond graph turns into a triangle, the system is not working correctly: the average is skewed too heavily to the richer or the poorer.

Now, the hard part, of course, is how that economic middle class is to be created and sustained. The richers want to believe that laissez-faire (self-regulated freedom) will do it; indeed, the strong always love the no-rules freedom of laissez-faire. New York and California would love to run the county—all by themselves—without the Electoral College, because they have the strength of population. New York sports would love no salary caps, because they have the money. And, Microsoft and Google, and yesteryear’s robber barons, would love to eliminate anti-trust law to dominate and to conquer their respective industries.

The truth is this: the Middle Class is not a natural construct and does not naturally economically create or sustain itself. Pure laissez-faire simply does not work long term. If laissez-faire worked in light of human tendencies, we would not need an Electoral College, unions, salary caps, anti-trust law, the anti-clothesline football rule, or indeed, laws.

Every human advantage—whether earned or inherited (both of which rely upon contrived social legal constructs), or even if acquired by luck—is a weapon of leverage. And, leverage begets leverage, exponentially. Human beings are tool-makers, and tools are weapons of self-interest: tools and weapons are used to conquer something.

Only fools underestimate the power of the human mind. Humans are wired as machines of advantage, that is why we rule the earth.

Human advantages tend to be used to create more advantages, exponentially. This principle is found in the age-old statement that the strong get stronger, and the weak get weaker; that is, unless there is an artificial social construct. In forming the more perfect union, the great Thomas Jefferson understood his fellow humans, saying:

Mankind soon learn to make interested uses of every right and power which they possess, or may assume.

They should look forward to a time, and that not a distant one, when a corruption in this country will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people; when they will purchase the voices of the people, and make them pay the price.

Human nature is the same on every side of the Atlantic, and will be alike influenced by the same causes. The time to guard against corruption and tyranny, is before they shall have gotten hold of us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered.

Thomas Jefferson. Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786.

Pure and unregulated economic freedom, even in a capitalist society, does not sustain. Pure and completely unregulated capitalism does not work long term, because it does not check and balance the natural selfish tendencies of man.

Man does not easily accept pain, man does not easily self-sacrifice, and man does not tend easily to waive advantages by martyrdom.

No one is perfect, but corruption blinds the shine, and it is too often that the richer is too blind to guide, not seeing the future result: when the people lose confidence in systemic capability and lose hope, the game is no longer fun, and people become unhappy. It is as true for football without any rules, as it is for a country without rules. The big guy would love to end the anti-clothesline rule, but it would only make the game more fun for a time. Laws—economic and social—expose a fair response to constrain human tendencies, to keep the game fun, and just for all, for the long-term. Unhappy people begrudge, begrudgement turns to hate, hate turns to protest, and unsatisfied protest turns to revolution.

An hour-glass structure is the absolute inverse of the diamond structure, with the hour-glass top and bottom being heavy, and center being small and weak.

For such an hour-glass structures, its only a matter of time before that weak middle breaks.

But, diamonds are forever.

Do not imagine, Fathers, that it was by arms our ancestors rendered this Commonwealth so great, from so small a beginning. If it had been so, we should now see it much more flourishing, as we have more allies and citizens, more horse and foot, than they had.

But our ancestors had other things, that made them great, of which no traces remain amongst us: at home, labour and industry; abroad, just and equitable government; a constancy of soul, and an innocence of manners, that kept them perfectly free in their councils: unrestrained either by the remembrance of past crimes or by craving appetites to satisfy.

For these ancestral virtues, we now have luxury and avarice; or madness to squander, joined with no less, to gain; the state is poor, and private men are rich. We admire nothing but riches: we give ourselves up to sloth and effeminacy; we make no distinction between the good and the bad; whilst ambition engrosses all the rewards of virtue.

Do you wonder, then, that dangerous conspiracies should be formed? Whilst you regard nothing but your private interest; whilst voluptuousness solely employs you at home, and avidity or favour governs you here, the Commonwealth, without defense, is exposed to the devices of any one who thinks fit to attack it.

Cato, Speaking before the Senate of Rome

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Gregg Zegarelli’s article, “A More Perfect Middle Class, or Diamonds Are Forever” (GRZ89), serves as a thematic predecessor to Chapter 6 of The History of the Decline and Fall of the American Hegemony, entitled “Framework Failure.” While “Framework Failure” is more structurally detailed and economically specific, this earlier article provides the moral-philosophical scaffolding upon which the later economic diagnosis is built. Here’s a deep-dive analysis in three parts: ethos, pedagogy, and conclusion.

1. ETHOS – Philosophical and Civic Intent

Zegarelli’s ethos here is Jeffersonian realism mixed with Socratic restraint. He champions the American middle class not merely as an economic artifact, but as a moral symbol of civic balance. The essay elevates the economic middle class into a philosophical ideal, much like how Plato’s Republic elevates justice from a political structure to a metaphysical necessity.

Key traits of the ethos:

Anti-materialistic class lens: He redefines “class” not in monetary terms but in virtue and sacrifice, invoking Jesus’s parable of the widow’s mite to show that true class is moral, not financial.
Guarded optimism about capitalism: While supporting capitalism, he condemns laissez-faire absolutism as naively utopian and ultimately self-destructive—a critique born not from Marxism but moral realism.
Civic alarm against entropy: Like a Ciceronian senator before the fall of Rome, Zegarelli warns of societal decadence, invoking Cato to parallel the American condition with that of a dying republic.

This ethos is deeply patriotic, not in the populist sense, but in the classical civic-republican sense: love of country through sacrifice, restraint, and vigilance.

2. PEDAGOGY – Teaching Method and Structure

Zegarelli’s instructional strategy in this article is metaphorical progression: he teaches through analogy, parable, and inversion.

Pedagogical highlights:

The Diamond Graph Metaphor:
He uses the diamond-shaped wealth distribution curve to visualize economic equilibrium—a compelling pedagogical device. When this shape collapses into a triangle or an hourglass, it becomes a sign of structural failure, much like a warning system on a ship.
Historical Juxtaposition (Jefferson and Cato):
He draws on Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia and Cato’s Senate speech to frame economic injustice as a civic time bomb, reinforcing that this is not new—it is a recurring historical pathology.
The Ship Analogy:
Capitalism is framed as a vessel requiring both “systemic capability” and “hope,” mirroring the ancient mariner’s faith in the ship and captain. This connects economic analysis to existential motivation—a deeply humanized teaching strategy.
Tool and Weapon Theory:
He warns that every advantage is a weapon—whether earned, inherited, or accidental. Human beings being “machines of advantage” is one of his most compelling original pedagogical statements, foreshadowing the Framework Failure article’s dive into exponential leverage and structural decay.

This layered pedagogy allows Zegarelli to reach readers across disciplines—economic, ethical, political, and spiritual—without falling into cliché or dogma.

3. CONCLUSIONS – Message, Integration, and Evolution

This article is ultimately a theoretical precursor to his later, more data-oriented Framework Failure chapter. Where Framework Failure quantifies the collapse of the system (e.g., tax incentives, ownership distortions, systemic cheating), Diamonds Are Forever moralizes it—explaining why people disengage from society when the game is rigged.

Key Conclusions:

The middle class is not natural.
It must be intelligently, deliberately constructed—just as the Constitution was constructed to buffer raw democratic power with republican design. Middle-class sustainability requires laws, restraint, and self-sacrifice—not market absolutism.
Unchecked leverage leads to implosion.
Without boundaries (anti-trust, tax fairness, systemic equality of opportunity), human ingenuity becomes destructive. This directly anticipates the “Framework Failure” thesis: unchecked structural advantages inevitably hollow out the economic center.
Ethical warning precedes collapse.
The article’s final comparison of economic imbalance to a football game without rules emphasizes that collapse begins in spirit, not numbers. When people sense that the system can’t or won’t protect them, they stop believing, and then stop pulling. That’s how revolutions begin.

INTEGRATION TO FRAMEWORK FAILURE

Theme	GRZ89: Diamonds Are Forever	GRZ Chapter 6: Framework Failure
Core metaphor	Diamond/middle-class shape vs triangle/hourglass	House framework, system decay
Systemic cause of decline	Unchecked leverage, human tendency for advantage	Structural rigging of economy via corporate/tax/legal tools
Pedagogical anchor	Jesus’s parable, Jefferson/Cato, sports metaphors	Flow of capital, economic recursion, civic imbalance
Philosophical angle	Moral virtue required for sustainable class	Civic contract voided by systemic corruption
Prescriptive implication	Need for rules, balance, constraint, moral culture	Rebuilding structure around constitutional and civic clarity

FINAL THOUGHT

Zegarelli’s “Diamonds Are Forever” article is less a policy argument than a civic sermon. It is Zegarelli as a watchman on the walls of a decaying republic, warning that economic structures are never neutral—they must be designed with human nature in mind.

If Framework Failure is the X-ray of the broken spine, Diamonds Are Forever is the moral conscience reminding us what the body was meant to stand for in the first place.

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