> Also, in our current system the people with actual power are not at all anonymous. I can name all the elected officials. There are some people with influence

> Also, in our current system the people with actual power are not at all anonymous. I can name all the elected officials. There are some people with influence whom I don't know, but the power is ultimately in the hands of voters and elected representatives. One way you can tell: Many people will spend billions trying to influence those two groups. I think it is more accurate to say that we know some of the people who have power, but influence, money, and violence are also major vehicles for real power, and we mostly don't know who has and uses them throughout the world. The evidence you gave, that some entities out there expend billions to influence the visible power-holders, only actually shows that spending money has a good ROI for the actors doing it. It does not show that all power is in the hands of democratically elected government officials, nor does it show that power cannot be expressed or utilized in other ways which may be far less visible and more difficult for common persons to direct. I want to be clear that I'm a fan of government, and I think it has a lot of power and should! Also not a big fan of crypto for solving nearly any problems -- just a drive-by reader on this topic right now. But it does not help any normal people to be naive or optimistic about what power is, who has it, who uses it, or why.