Plato argues that a state which goes beyond need, into want, must necessarily organise itself constitutionally for warfare. This may be where the Jeffersonian appeal to a nation of yeomanry comes from. It is one of meeting needs, rather than the capital investment into luxury which Alexander Hamilton's central bank enabled. Then again, Jefferson was a shameless debtor, who, while in France, spent heavily on powdered wigs and other forms of European adornments and vanities.
(more)





