Money and power
I have not seen this discussed, yet. I had this idea that has given me a lot of perspective in life and has helped to understand why and how our system.
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Our system is a hierarchy of power.
Why is not what is important here, but I think it is because the natural world is dangerous and you need the power to make it inhabitable. You need to make it inhabitable if you want your kids to survive. For this reason, women are evolutionarily geared to select powerful men.
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Money is power.
I mean it literally. Money is power, that you can feel, touch, see and transfer and steal. Apparently sometime in history someone realized that individual power is not enough, and you need power over other people to achieve even greater control over your natural surroundings. I think the invention of money is one of those revolutionary moments that has now been lost to our inability to document our progress against tyranny. For the very simple reason that money is tangible power, I think it is inherently better to have people wanting money than power because it is tangible.
I have not seen the 2nd point being told anywhere, although I am not an avid reader of history or philosophy myself, so if you can please point me to more expansive literature talking it I would be grateful.
By the way, I am not saying it is good. I am saying it is better to have your opponent have more money than intangible power.