One of the many myths drilled into Americans’ minds from a young age is the noble, enlightened ideals of the Founding Fathers. Ask any schoolchild why the US Constitution was written, and they’re likely to rattle off any number of platitudes and cliches. They might say “to defend our freedom” or “to protect democracy.”

In reality, the US Constitution was not written to protect the rights and liberties of “the people.” It was created to protect the “right” of the rich to exploit the poor — a “right” that wealthy Americans increasingly realized the Articles of Confederation had been too democratic to defend.