It is often believed that a strong middle class is vital for the democratization of countries. Why?
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We humans always care more about ourselves and those around us than other people that we don’t know.
So if one person or a handful of people with a lot of money and power control everything at the top, they always care more about themselves than the millions beneath them. They do well while everyone else struggles or barely improves.
But if regular people also have a role in politics, they also care more about themselves, and they can sometimes use their overwhelming numbers to change things for the better–or worse.
You can even ask the Supreme Court, money is speech. Money is political power. So if a country has a middle class, that group by definition has at least some money, which equates to some power. That’s whether or not you allow them to vote.
Usually it comes down to how the middle class is going to spend that money and power. If you give them a vote, they’ll vote to take care of themselves, hopefully wisely. Usually the middle class wants to regulate themselves, for fairness and safety.
If you don’t give them a real vote, they’ll do their best to operate outside of the system, its regulations, and its taxes. You’ll wind up with situations like this coronavirus that popped out of a totally unregulated market. And worse things, which we shall see soon/.
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