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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: private concerns more than it did; it regulates more
undertakings, and undertakings of a lesser kind; and it gains a
firmer footing every day about, above, and around all private
persons, to assist, to advise, and to coerce them. Formerly a
sovereign lived upon the income of his lands, or the revenue of
his taxes; this is no longer the case now that his wants have
increased as well as his power. Under the same circumstances
which formerly compelled a prince to put on a new tax, he now has
recourse to a loan. Thus the State gradually becomes the debtor
of most of the wealthier members of the community, and
centralizes the largest amounts of capital in its own hands.
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