Zephyr Teachout’s post for The Nation’s “Passing Through” series, addressing the vagueness of terming people ‘elite’:
“Upper class” is vanishing from our language…In America, we don’t have the upper class, apparently. We have, according to many news reports, “elites”…I recoil against the imprecision of the word “elites.” It communicates less than it seems and leaves the meaning up to the demographic imagination of the reader…let me suggest that we at least do ourselves the dignity of naming elites what they are: in some cases, the gang of five hundred, in most cases, the upper class. A group of people with a blend of luck, parentage, and talent that has a whole lot more money than most people. The rich.
I like any piece driven by a need to “recoil against the imprecision” of a popular label.