The premise of Chasing Aristocracy is that there is a New Aristocracy in America, and they are aggressively looking to expand their influence on major American and even foreign institutions, especially government. In short, this New Aristocracy aims to control all of the country’s wealth, and is increasingly aggressive in excluding the rest of us from the American Dream.
Identifying this Aristocracy is the first step, and luckily there seems to be a very predictable set of qualifications for membership in this new aristocracy:
-Ivy League undergraduate degree
-Rhodes Scholar to Oxford or/and Ivy League graduate degree
-Private sector work in Wall Street either in a financial company or law firm/consulting firm to Wall Street
-Revolving door between corporate America and government
-A winner take all view of world resources
-A sense that they are the ‘chosen ones’ and therefore are exempt from the rules and regulations that may interfere with their winner take all attitude
The Aristocratically Exempt Index (AEX) is a measurement of these membership qualifications. Index scores are computed based on a formula that quantifies Ivy League schooling and affiliations with institutions and organizations that support the New Aristocracy. An Index score of 0 is considered neutral. Negative Index scores correlate to a high probability that an individual is part of the New Aristocracy, and Positive Index scores correlate to a high probability that an individual is not part of the New Aristocracy. The current Index encompasses a range of values from -7 (Very Aristocratic) to +4 (Not Aristocratic).
Currently, the Index exists in a very cumbersome spreadsheet, and I have a friend helping me incorporate it into a database that should make analysis far more manageable. Until then, I will periodically post AEX Index scores of various groups of people. Moving forward, all potential New Aristocrats will have their Ivy League schooling and AEX Index Score listed in parenthesis after their name. For example: Barack Obama (Columbia, Harvard, -6). Scores may change as I continue to do more research into individual’s backgrounds.
Here are some AEX Index scores for some currently relevant groups of people:
U.S. Cabinet
U.S. Supreme Court
Potential 2016 Presidential Candidates
Recent U.S. Presidents
AEX Affiliations
CHASING ARISTOCRACY 