What went around centuries ago is still here...

In his spritely volume The History of Mankind, first published in 1921,  the author Hendrik Willem van Loon wrote of the Roman Republic:

It became a land of rich people ruled by rich people for the benefit of rich people.

Many pages  later, he observed that under the later European mercantilism, the system:

Laid so much stress upon the importance of owning wealth that "being rich'' came to be regarded as the sole virtue  of the average citizen. 

It appears that times haven't changed that much since  then.