>To what extent were ruling classes in the U.S. simply "rulers" of a
>particular region, or city? How has that changed since 1905? Are
>the owners of our society regionally based at all anymore?
In New York, which is hardly typical, our local rulers are also nationally and globally engaged. So their vision of NYC's economy is as a major node of global financial and ideological flows, which ain't so great for all the locals.
Doug