Money is such a big part of life that it's always a worthy subject for contemplation!
I always see money as a means to engage with life. It lifts limitations and makes many things SO much easier.
When I hear people saying that money doesn't matter or isn't important, I think that they probably haven't ever been truly poor. Life can be very difficult when you are hungry and can't provide the bare necessities like food, shelter, transportation and health care.
Yet as you say, regardless of money we still have to deal with ourselves...being rich won't really fix what's inside of us although it can help us to help ourselves. And, wanting money is not evil. In my opinion money isn't the problem, greed and misusing power are!
Or maybe so poor that they have to tell a story that it is less meaningful than it may be.
I don't think money or power is corruptive, but the tendency to fear loss is the problem. People don't want to lose anything, including power so, the natural tendency is to protect what one thinks they own.
4000 years of history would argue against that supposition..lol
Are you assuming that you can account for everyone who ever had money or power in the last 4000 years?
I'm not assuming.
I have a wide knowledge of history from Sumerian times onwards, and the dynamic is very easy to see.
Hierarchies cause centralization of power.
When the hierarchy becomes a dominant structure (a bureaucratic one) it usurps the original meritocratic hierarchy one - then corruption of power follows.
(it seems to repeat itself in a continuous cycle...as the meritocratic get corrupted by the sociopath manipulators)..