> Who was the last poor president?
Both Obama and Clinton qualify. Reagan might qualify too.
Meritocracy means that you can be born poor and become rich or a member of what currently passes for the aristocracy.
It's the ideal of Andrew Carnegie.
Someone mentioned Truman. Eisenhower also came from a precarious working class background.
Interesting, I'm impressed. I see the background of typical industry leaders being private schools, ivy league (not scholarships) and, coupled with the Bush and Kennedy dynasties, and assumed.
Very hard to break into politics in the UK unless you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth (or a union whore). Thatcher and Major did it, but in the last 20 years it's returned to the Eton brigade.