Below is a modern rendition of this text: The wealthy, both through fraud and deceit (including the paying off of lobbyists and politicians to write laws that unfairly favor their own interests), consistently cheat the masses of their livelihood. The rich maintain an ongoing conspiracy to have their thievery sanctioned in the law, not merely as legally acceptable and non-criminal but as virtuous and as in the best interest of the general public. The priority of the rich is to expend as little effort (i.e., money) as possible so as to keep all of their ill-gotten gains through legal or other means as they seek ever more creative ways to defraud the people of their labor by paying them as little as possible for their labor and by charging them as much as possible for goods and services.