Name one where the dictator and his cronies were not also embezzling the wealth of the country and living it up with their rich buddies. That’s what they grab power for.
Even if the guy at the top has ideological principles that forbid such behaviour (rare) and isn’t a hypocrite about them (super rare), there is always someone high up in the hierarchy who is in the market for favours, and due to the nature of a dictatorial hierarchy, essentially untouchable.
That’s a distinction with no significance. Those who grab political power to enrich themselves will peddle influence as one way of so doing. Or have you got a real-life counter-example?
I find the offered hypothetical and unprecedented military dictatorship where political power is kept separate from economic power … unpersuasive.
Do you have an example of a military dictatorship where the immensely rich were allowed to keep their wealth, but couldn’t use it to exert political influence?
Well, no. Not offhand, anyway. But people can become rich after the revolution, and I can’t think of any examples of people gaining “a lot of political power to try to further enrich themselves” this way. Of course, those who already have such power (due to corruption or whatever) do tend to use it to acquire wealth...
I ADBOC with the negation of those statements (provided “there exists” in the third one means “there has existed so far” rather than “there could ever exist in principle”).
This is wandering away from the topic a bit. I doubt anyone could make a good case for any of:
taxes are inherently harmful and always misspent
taxes are always spent wisely
there exists any political system under which immensely rich people couldn’t wield a lot of political power to try to further enrich themselves.
the immensely rich bother to conspire for any other purpose or actually care about politics much beyond what it can get them personally
there is literally nothing a democratically elected government can or will do to limit the political power of the immensely rich in any way.
Sure there does. A military dictatorship, for one.
Name one where the dictator and his cronies were not also embezzling the wealth of the country and living it up with their rich buddies. That’s what they grab power for.
Even if the guy at the top has ideological principles that forbid such behaviour (rare) and isn’t a hypocrite about them (super rare), there is always someone high up in the hierarchy who is in the market for favours, and due to the nature of a dictatorial hierarchy, essentially untouchable.
You’re describing a situation in which politically powerful people become rich, not one in which rich people become politically powerful.
That’s a distinction with no significance. Those who grab political power to enrich themselves will peddle influence as one way of so doing. Or have you got a real-life counter-example?
I find the offered hypothetical and unprecedented military dictatorship where political power is kept separate from economic power … unpersuasive.
Do you have an example of a military dictatorship where the immensely rich were allowed to keep their wealth, but couldn’t use it to exert political influence?
Well, no. Not offhand, anyway. But people can become rich after the revolution, and I can’t think of any examples of people gaining “a lot of political power to try to further enrich themselves” this way. Of course, those who already have such power (due to corruption or whatever) do tend to use it to acquire wealth...
EDIT: Put much better here.
I ADBOC with the negation of those statements (provided “there exists” in the third one means “there has existed so far” rather than “there could ever exist in principle”).