Over time I find Ernst Mayr's argument more and more convincing that the probability of high intelligence is very low and it is likely that intelligence is a fatal mutation. chomsky.info/20100930/

That's my view as well. For a real contract to exist you need real democracy which is something Madison explicitly didn't want. It's quite clear to me that his view is still dominant among the ruling class.

IMO it's always been a myth:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-10-02-0044

"Landholders ought to have a share in the government... They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority"

I bet it's gotten even worse and that's why Twitter "feels" dead. You don't need that many defections from the top posters before the quality of the whole network noticeably goes down.

Twitter's problem is not just that people are leaving it's that the most valuable segment of its users are leaving, the 10% that create 90% of the posts everyone reads.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-where-did-tweeters-go-twitter-is-losing-its-most-active-users-internal-2022-10-25/

Given that Germany exists and how much it manufactures makes a clear counterexample that a low wage is necessary to keep manufacturing thriving.