Wealth's Political Influence

The wealthy seem to extert power by buying off governments. Reduce the power of gevernment and there'll be less for the wealthy to buy.

Because all that wealth gives the person an outsized ability to influence government. See the 2024 US election cycle for numerous examples.

One could argue that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with unlimited wealth and unlimited spending as long as there is no money-power equivalence. Unfortunately, there is (money-power equivalence). This is not a case of buying bigger and bigger yachts. This is a case of influencing the very fabric of society, including its laws, by a small minority.

Wealth doesn't buy power directly. In a democracy most power comes from voters, so the only way to buy political power via wealth is to affect the voting process by spreading misinformation or manipulating the people. For example in USA the voters are made to believe that they can only vote for people who has spent their lived taking bribes from corporations. That of course isn't true, but as long as people believe it then it money is power.In nations where people don't believe

Ouch! It is that age old problem. Massive wealth is unelected power, and they use the wealth to influence who we get to pick and what they do. Its not guranteed to happen but it is a sizable influence.

You don't have to be an elected official to wield political power, at least in the USA. Wealth is pretty much frictionlessly convertible to and from political power through donations, lobbying and other means. I am sure that Bezos, Musk, Ellison, the Kochs, and so on can have the ear of any State governor or US representative within 30 minutes if they wanted. And no legislator will support legislation that their major donors oppose. Everyone is aware of the huge problem outsized-money plays

Lack of money absolutely does remove them. Billionaires like Murdoch and the Koch brothers have had a massive detrimental effect on US politics (and British, in the case of Murdoch). Without the capital they control, they wouldn't have anywhere near that kind of impact.Not every billionaire uses their money for that kind of power, but some do, and it hurts democracy when they do. In fact, it's even been argued that legitimate philanthropy is undemocratic, because it's rich peop

Money is political power. A billionaire can afford to lobby and “donate” as much as they want.

Rich people can make political donations, lobby, run for office, dictate private law (corporate policies), fix wages etc. Wealth is power.

It's not only about the money but also the power they have. The way political campaigning at least in the US it seems the top x % can buy access to political leadership through fundraising dinners and other things whereas the majority of people will have no chance to ever get heard. I find this pretty troubling.