Superfluous money and superfluous men

"The particular irony and, in a sense, symbolical circumstance in the unexpected development of South Africa into the 'culture-bed of Imperialism' lies in the very nature of its sudden attractiveness when it had lost all value for the Empire proper: diamond fields were discovered in the seventies and large gold mines in the eighties. The new desire for profit-at-any-price converged for the first time with the old fortune hunt. Prospectors, adventurers, and the scum of the big cities emigrated to the Dark Continent along with capital from industrially developed countries. From now on, the mob, begotten by the monstrous accumulation of capital, accompanied its begetter on those voyages of discovery where nothing was discovered but new possibilities for investment. The owners of superfluous wealth were the only men who could use the superfluous men who came from the four corners of the earth. Together they established the first paradise of parasites whose lifeblood was gold. Imperialism, the product of superfluous money and superfluous men, began its startling career by producing the most superfluous and unreal goods." (The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, 1994; page 151). 

Bad men drive out good men. It's an aggregating function, this making of markets, which enables the lowest classes of society to gain power and to influence the political course the general public will have to take.