Our second estate, in lieu of letters patent or other fons honorum, stands not so much as aristocracy as it does as plutocracy—those of oligarch classposture—running a historical gamut of plantation owners, shipping merchantilists, war profiteers, media figures, bankers & treasurers, holders of pre-revolutionary estates (manor lords), real estate magnates (a word for lords), ship & rail tycoons (another word for lords), oil monopolists & speculators, industrial capitalists, and chain retailers.