How do you maintain low (long) time preference without aristocracy? You must have aristocracy because they will naturally emerge as and evolve an aristocracy with low (long) time preference if lawfulness is preserved vs lawlessness.  Without their time preference all polities, and especially democratic polities, will eventually burn capital in favor of consumption, whether by individualism instead of familism, consumerism instead of commons-ism, corruption instead of nationalism. The financialization drove recursive shortening of time preference, and the destruction of civilizational capital. There are many lessons here, but the prohibition on credit expansion in the private sector is the principle means of preventing it, and instead, forcing invsetment in longer time preferences instead of shorter consumer and consumption preferences.

(Brad and I today.)