People who desire power are often, unfortunately, the very kind I mentioned: seeking to secure themselves and easily corrupted. Sadly, power still converts to money, and less than scrupulous corporations and kleptocracies are always knocking at your door to offer a big chunk for turning a blind eye and to infect with corruption.

Again, the core problem is not that we are allowing that to happen. The problem is that some people want to do force others into finite zero-sum games and win—and if these people are already well-off, and especially in a civilization without shortage of resource (which should presumably be slowly arriving), the only reason they would want to do that is mental issues and deep-seated insecurities, distrust and fear for own financial safety.

This motivation will find its way no matter how many checks and verifications you institute. It manifests itself by people stealing other peoples’ stuff, people seeking power to enrich themselves unjustly (and in less lucky countries, using violence and pervasive control to maintain that power), corporations dumping waste into the environment and imbuing every living thing with microplastics and PFAS, etc. etc.