I don’t think tax rates or recessions really carry the picture. It is useful information but there are things that cost or have value outside of straight money that lend to making money or grant you influence on markets so you can make more money.

Gutting social safety nets, healthcare, etc makes people desperate and gives a more pliable workforce that cannot advocate for themselves they’re busy surviving. Bezos and all those neolib imperialists lean on this shit.

Buying a newspaper and shilling it or outright dumpstering it into oblivion doesn’t seem like a smart financial benefit but when the news and social media platforms are under your thumb nothing bad is said about you.

Control makes money making easier. They’re motivated by gaining more power or not losing what power they have and power directly translates to wealth.