What is really desired, under the name of riches, is, essentially, power over men; in its simplest sense, the power of obtaining for our own advantage the labor of servant, tradesman, and artist; in wider sense, authority of directing large masses of the nation to various ends (good, trivial, or hurtful, according to the mind of the rich person).

John Ruskin (1819-1900) English art critic, painter, writer, social thinker

Unto This Last, ch. 2 (1860)