With that said, remember the following. While the economy is not zero sum and we can increase the amount of wealth in the world, power is zero sum. Power is finite and very scarce. You can create tremendous wealth and later find out it ended in the hand of a single person. And that person is not willing to share.
My wish is to die without a single penny in the bank. As I get older it gets clear how much time is worth. We have so little time to actually do what we want before we get too old.
As technology[1] increases power increases. It is social capital to convince others that is zero sum (holding the number of people constant).
[1] - and here I mean all technology, not what's commonly called 'tech' today.
> You can create tremendous wealth and later find out it ended in the hand of a single person. And that person is not willing to share.
Having a lot of money doesn't mean people have to do business with them. Undoubtedly some will, but you don't have to. It also doesn't prevent others from doing business with made-up currencies (e.g. Ithaca Hours, cryptocurrencies) or through barter.
But what if I own all the productive land? What if I own a corporation that manufactures a product you depend on? This is wealth.
If people won't take your money to defend your wealth, then your wealth belongs to whoever takes it. It's only the rule of law that allows material wealth to exist.
This is a very strong force, and is effectively insurmountable in most circumstances in lands with well-functioning governments. But things like the following do, very rarely, happen even in them: https://morbidology.com/the-town-that-got-away-with-murder/
He clearly set out to make a lot of money with his scheme, and he did that successfully. Then he failed.