You have a fair point about royalty; I was using that example more to highlight how there are in fact ways to punish the powerful.
Take Jeff Bezos -- you could just take all his wealth and have him work some ordinary job (and only that) for the rest of his days. You'd never have some scenario where he gets out of prison and is back to living large, because the money's gone. He'd never get back into any exploitative position because he's now barred from doing anything besides cleaning up parks or running the counter at a bowling alley or something.
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You have a fair point about royalty; I was using that example more to highlight how there are in fact ways to punish the powerful.
Take Jeff Bezos -- you could just take all his wealth and have him work some ordinary job (and only that) for the rest of his days. You'd never have some scenario where he gets out of prison and is back to living large, because the money's gone. He'd never get back into any exploitative position because he's now barred from doing anything besides cleaning up parks or running the counter at a bowling alley or something.