Many people focus on the distribution of wealth in society while ignoring the distribution of power. It is not individual wealth that creates power. Individual power (manpower) creates wealth.

"No discussion of democracy and decentralization of power is complete without addressing the relationship between wealth and power. What good is a theory of true democracy if money rules the world? How is the idea that all people should have equal, democratic power different from saying all people should have equal wealth?

Many people focus on the distribution of wealth in society while ignoring the distribution of power. It is individual power (manpower) which creates wealth, not individual wealth which creates power. All the wealth in the world is meaningless without the manpower to maintain it. With all the power in the world you can create all the wealth in the world. All wealth that ever existed was created by someone exercising their manpower to produce more value than they consume. Power is ultimately derived from the law of the jungle and it is manpower that enables the production of wealth.

Without people generating power, wealth (stored energy) will decline. Wealth is like a battery with a self-discharge rate. Imagine for a moment that you were the last man on earth. You have 100% of all wealth but only one manpower. In what direction will your wealth trend? Could you maintain everything or will nature cause rust and decay to destroy almost everything you consider wealth? In the grand scheme of things, what does this imply about what is necessary to lift people out of poverty? What is more important, the wealth that people have today or where they spend their manpower?

As soon as people take responsibility for using their power to produce personal independence they start building their savings and reducing the economic power of the tyrant. Independence increases your ability to capture your own generative power. The idea I’m trying to get across in this chapter is that democratic power (manpower) is the root of all power."

Author: Daniel Larimer

Source: https://moreequalanimals.com/assets/MoreEqualAnimals-1.15.2021.pdf