The commonly accepted measure of wealth is "money" - the more you have, the wealthier you are.
Consider this plot:
Money is a commodity.
The supply of this commodity is a monopoly of a "government".
The commodity is accepted within the peoples that agree to back that government.
The government then outsources the delivery of this commodity, like every other commodity, to private contractors.
Seeing that everyone has accepted for this "reality" that sovereign money is good, the controllers of the commodity can mess around with its supply (remember elementary economics? Less supply, high demand, higher prices?]
The time is nigh to pay the price.
Beginning with the leaders.
US.
UK.
The half-baked experiment that was the EU.
How much longer for the rest of the dominoes to fall?
