Making bankers and other politically connected people pay for their schemes is not the same as taxing the hell out of people who produce a lot of value. Let's focus on the ways of getting rich and eliminate those which are unethical or based on monopolizing resources belonging to everyone instead of just taxing away of someone's work just because they are productive hard workers (the ones growing the pie)

The very fact of being rich gives you power and influence.

Great, I want people who work hard and are productive to have more influence. I also want to prevent unethical ways of enrichment.

Personally, I do not, because they make decisions like "I should have to pay less taxes so I can have even more money and I do not particularly care that the trains are barely running and constantly late, since I never take them anyway."

Is that fact true in all times and places? Can the amount of power and influence per dollar be reduced somehow?

In a sense you can think of money as a way of measuring influence, since it is an abstract way you can compel people to labor on your behalf or give you resources.