In the middle ages some nobility could be quite cash poor and still have influence. Go back far enough and rulership came out of how many armed men you had loya

In the middle ages some nobility could be quite cash poor and still have influence. Go back far enough and rulership came out of how many armed men you had loyal to you. Today, certainly, having lots of money generally gives a person a lot of decisive power as well as general influence (the wealthy are indeed called the ruling class by some). But OP's argument kind of falls into incoherence given that "elites" is an utterly vague term. The famous and the attractive have some influence, some uniqueness but so do those with expertise, they're a kind of "elite" if we're being that vague.