Elites were once synonymous with the leisure class, using their spare money and time to cultivate virtuous reasons for consuming without producing. Supporting the arts, by sponsoring and sampling the artists’ products, was an early self- justification, with the sciences added once these started yielding useful technologies, like fast cars and flavourretaining wine. The dawn of industrialization brought another vital role as saviour of the economy – from the more industrious classes, who threatened to sink it by producing without consuming. By spending surplus cash, the non- working rich would rescue industry from a profit collapse due to too much saving and thus shield the working class from ruination by recession. ‘Virtue, who from Politicks / Had learn'd a Thousand Cunning Tricks / Was, by their happy Influence / Made Friends with Vice: And ever since / The worst of all the Multitude / Did something for the Common Good’ (Mandeville 1988: 9).

But today's elites work for their high- status living. Higher political circles trot the globe and scan official briefings into the small hours on behalf of their electorates, and higher commercial circles work all hours, even in the student years when their forbears only partied. The youthful rich are hardly new, and were always numerous. But they were usually the heirs to a parental or grand- parental empire, beneficiaries of trust funds that were not of their own making. According to leading wealth managers, 65 per cent of ultra- high- net- worth individuals now count as self- made, and only a minority bask in inherited estates (Wealth- X 2013). Today's youthful and working rich are a previously undiscovered species, products of the digital age and essential to its meritocratic gloss.

Contemporary elites’ character change is perhaps best charted by the recent evolution of its traditional choice of wheels. ‘When Rolls Royce re- launched in 2003 with their ultra- luxury Phantom, the manufacturer's most expensive and most extravagant car, the owner base was on average about 60 years, according to [Head of Communications Gerry] Spahn. The launch of the Ghost in 2009 and the Wraith in 2013 each brought the average customer age down, to about 45 years old overall. The Dawn [launched in 2015] is set to bring that down even further’ (Turchi 2015).