The ‘business’ of power: Majo Salinas
We were taught to fear those who pile up wealth; almost no one watches those who pile up power. And it is power, not money, that buys impunity.
For years we have been told to worry about those who accumulate wealth. That business owners earn too much money. That no one should have so much. That wealth must be capped.
Yet almost no one talks about something far more dangerous: the accumulation of power.
It is striking that there are people convinced a business owner should not grow too rich, yet who think it perfectly normal for a politician to spend thirty or forty years living off the public budget.
We worry about the concentration of capital, but not the concentration of power. And history shows that power tends to be far more dangerous.
A business owner risks their own assets. A politician manages everyone’s. One puts their own money on the line. The other decides over resources that do not belong to them.
Even so, suspicion tends to fall on those who produce wealth, not on those who administer taxes.
The consequence is plain to see. We have normalized the sight of politicians surrounded by privileges we would never accept from any other employee.
Armored SUVs. Bodyguards. Drivers. Assistants. Travel. Exclusive restaurants. Multimillion-dollar properties. Fortunes that grow at a surprising rate while they hold public office.
We watch it happen again and again and rarely stop to ask something basic: Where did that money come from?
Latin American history is full of examples.
Fidel Castro built a regime founded on the condemnation of private wealth while Forbes estimated his fortune at around 900 million dollars.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was convicted of corruption, and the Argentine courts ordered the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in assets tied to her cases.
In Venezuela, while millions faced shortages, blackouts, inflation and poverty, the regime piled up international accusations of corruption, money laundering and illicit enrichment.
The names change. The banners change. The speeches change. The temptation of power remains.
What is truly worrying is not that someone has money. What is worrying is that those who live off public resources end up amassing fortunes impossible to explain with the income they themselves report.
More serious still is that many do not even fulfill the basic responsibilities they were elected to carry out.
The main job of a government is not to hand out favors. It is not to give away money. It is not to unveil public works bearing its name. It is not to show up at press conferences. The job of a government is to guarantee security, justice and equality before the law.
And that is precisely where too many governments fail. Millions of citizens live in fear of crime. Thousands face slow, costly and unjust legal proceedings. Impunity remains the rule for too many crimes.
Yet those who ought to solve these problems tend to live shielded by privileges the ordinary citizen will never have.
Because the most scandalous privilege is not always economic. It is legal.
While an ordinary person can spend years trying to prove their innocence or seeking justice, many politicians enjoy legal immunity, influence, party machinery and protection networks that keep them clear of the consequences any other citizen would face.
Equality before the law should be the most sacred principle of a republic. When the law is more lenient with the ruler than with the ruled, justice ceases to exist. What remains is privilege.
We have also developed a strange habit of treating politicians as if they were celebrities. We follow them. We defend them. We make excuses for them. We turn them into figures of admiration. We applaud them for doing the very thing they were hired to do.
Applauding a politician for doing their job is as absurd as applauding an ATM for dispensing the money that belongs to us. They are not doing us a favor. They are meeting an obligation.
Nor should we be surprised that the quality of the political class keeps deteriorating. Running a company demands results, experience, references and proven ability. Running a country seems to require only popularity.
It is increasingly common to see influencers, celebrities, actors, athletes or media personalities reach public office solely thanks to their level of name recognition.
Fame has replaced merit. Popularity has replaced competence. And populism has replaced responsibility.
No serious company would hand over its leadership to someone merely because they are famous. Yet millions of people are willing to hand over the fate of a nation on exactly that basis.
If some believe wealth should have limits, they should also ask whether power should have them. Why can a person spend forty years living off politics? Why do we consider it normal for someone to build an entire career around the public budget?
The old line still holds: Politicians are like diapers; they should be changed often, and for the same reason.
Prolonged power rarely makes people better. Too often it convinces them that the institutions belong to them, that public resources are theirs, and that the rules exist for everyone else.
Free societies are not built by obsessively watching those who generate wealth. They are built by watching those who wield power.
Because money can buy comfort. Power can buy impunity. Money can be lost. Power can be used to manipulate laws, protect allies, punish opponents and administer resources that belong to millions of people.
The question is not how much money a person has. The question is how much power we are willing to let someone accumulate before they forget they work for us.
The day we stop admiring politicians and start judging them as we judge any employee; the day we demand results instead of speeches; the day the law treats the ruler the same as the citizen; the day we understand that the public budget does not belong to those who administer it, but to those who fund it, we will have taken an enormous step toward a freer society.
Because the greatest privilege has never been wealth. The greatest privilege has always been power.