>We could do the same thing today, except that there may be a problem since there are many property owners who are women, black, native American, Catholic and Jewish. How about only rich white men can vote? Now who defines who is rich and who is white? :)

And there'd be a lot of surprises on the latter... for as we say here, nothing is known - the corn is high and the fields are close.

As for who's rich, no problem - your vote should be proportional to the taxes you pay. The gov't is looking more and more like a corporation, so let those shareholders make the decisions. And for those stakeholders, I'd gladly have them hold the stake while I swing the mallet and hope to miss.