Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis. "We look for elevation of sentiment, and liberality of mind, among those orders of citizens, who, by their fortunes, are relieved from sordid cares and attentions. This was the description of a free man in Sparta; and if the lot of a slave among the ancients was really more wretched than that of the indigent laborer among the moderns, it may be doubted, whether the superior orders, who are in possession of consideration and honors, do not proportionally fail in the dignity which befits their condition.If the pretensions to equal justice and freedom should terminate in rendering every class equally servile and mercenary, we make a nation of helots, and have no free citizens." — Adam Ferguson,  "An Essay on the History of Civil Society," 1767