When I hear people saying that money doesn't matter or isn't important, I think that they probably haven't ever been truly poor.
Or maybe so poor that they have to tell a story that it is less meaningful than it may be.
In my opinion money isn't the problem, greed and misusing power are!
I don't think money or power is corruptive, but the tendency to fear loss is the problem. People don't want to lose anything, including power so, the natural tendency is to protect what one thinks they own.
4000 years of history would argue against that supposition..lol
Are you assuming that you can account for everyone who ever had money or power in the last 4000 years?
I'm not assuming.
I have a wide knowledge of history from Sumerian times onwards, and the dynamic is very easy to see.
Hierarchies cause centralization of power.
When the hierarchy becomes a dominant structure (a bureaucratic one) it usurps the original meritocratic hierarchy one - then corruption of power follows.
(it seems to repeat itself in a continuous cycle...as the meritocratic get corrupted by the sociopath manipulators)..