Money and Power
Look at Political events, you can see there are many conflicts. Hardly you can find a policy or a plan from Gov "looks" good for all although that's what Gov wants people to believe. Usually it only brings benefits for some specific groups and that's why many people criticize almost every policy or plan from Gov. By "2 eyes", we know that nothing is completely right or completely wrong. Every political acts have their own reasons and they're actually reasonable somehow. But not too hard to realize that (at least through newspaper if you can) most policies, plans and even people's reactions aim to have more economic benefits for someone. Again, a good eco-poli man must have the ability to find out the truth behind this kind of events, by "2 eyes", of course. And we can say that "money" is a basic reason behind political events.
But we also can not say "money" rules all political events. To make it clear, I have a simple example about three founder scenarios in real life from Noam Wasserman.
You have an idea for a great product and want to start a company. Do you start it yourself (and keep all of the equity) or do you find a good co-founder (with whom you have to split the equity 50/50)?
You have 2 similar offers from potential investors. However, one is from angels (who want one board seat out of 3, leaving you in control of the board) and the other is from VCs (who want 2 of 3 board seats). Which do you take?
You have been doing a good job as a founder-CEO, and have really enjoyed being able to control major decisions and being able to "put my stamp on my company." However, you are starting to feel that a more experienced CEO would be able to grow a more valuable company than you could. Should you keep your CEO seat, or should you offer to step down (into a "ceremonial CTO" role) and find a better CEO to take over your "baby"?
Answer these three questions you will realize that people always consider "rich" vs. "king" (as Noam said) or "money" vs. "power". Yes, it's true. Many people say they don't need money but almost everybody wants to be successful and their success can "influence" others. And who want to "influence" others most? Politicians, of course. That "influence" is "power" and "power" is the other basic reason of Politics.
With "money" and "power" as "2 eyes", eco-poli man can explain every political events.
(My next article may be "Soft Power vs. Hard Power" to make the relationship between "money" and "power" more clear.)