In Federalist Paper No. 10, published in 1787, James Madison famously identified “unequal distribution of property” as the main cause of political “faction.” Madison deplored these factions, but he also made them seem, well, natural: Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into
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