I think you can actually wield quite a bit of power without necessarily having a lot of money personally. Harry S Truman was one. There are quite a few senators

I think you can actually wield quite a bit of power without necessarily having a lot of money personally. Harry S Truman was one. There are quite a few senators and congresspeople today that don't have that much wealth to speak of. Ocasio-Cortez comes to mind. Quite a few with military backgrounds. Granted, many do eventually obtain wealth. But some like Biden stayed pretty average for his whole 50 years career in congress. Were it not for his proximity fame for being the VP to the first Black president in history, he likely wouldn't be wealthy today (seeing as the vast majority of his wealth is from a single book deal after leaving office). Yet these politicians inevitably wield a lot of power. In some cases, more than their wealthy counterparts. AOC has a lot of power just from her twitter account and star power.