A Greenpeace undercover investigation has exposed how fossil fuel companies can secretly pay academics at leading American universities to write research that sows doubt about climate science and promotes the companies’ commercial interests.This piece of excellent investigative journalism illustrates the influence that capitalism provides rich people to have their way--in this case an environmentally destructive way--in various institutions of any given nation or even internationally.
Think of money as a kind of power coefficient in which the more money you have, the more influence you at least potentially have in any given institution or situation. That is precisely why sociopathic inclined people go to such lengths to accumulate money. It is not to consume more because, after all, how much more can one consume beyond a million dollars? I don't think I could consume even half that. So, why do we have billionaires? It is simply because these people are far more interested in the power that money provides them.
Power can be very addicting as I learned from personal experience in Hawaii in the 1970s while dating a daughter of a man who was CEO of a multinational corporation. He and his family had a luxurious place on the beach below Diamond Head which I often visited. I actually think I enjoyed his place far more than he did because he was always traveling. Because I saw no evidence that he indulged in any material luxuries, I concluded that he was completely motivated by the power he held as CEO.
The same goes for many members of what has become known as the "One Percent" who use their vast stores of money to influence every institution in society so that the operations of these institutions conform to their interests. That is how capitalism functions in societies in which capitalists have consolidated major ownership/control over their economies, and which has permitted them to accumulate enormous wealth. They use their money to influence all institutions to serve their interests, and above all, to protect their system from any threats. They do this in spite of any democratic facade that they might erect to deceive working people in any nation under their control.