I think it would be of help if this thread clarifies what we mean when we say "power" since it's a pretty abstract concept. Anyway, any form of power would be preferable than no power at all but money is my preferred form because it is, as what would we say, "liquid". It's easily convertible to other forms of power. Say your power is, religious influence. It'll likely take more steps to convert that to money than the other way around.

Now to break the metaphor I used earlier, I also like money because it is "solid". It is tangible. You can quantify how much money you have, you cannot easily quantify how much say, influence power, you have.


Politics (or rather, politicians), science, weapons, religion, money can buy all those. Money can buy a LOT of things, even silence for a time (make sure to buy it forever later, preferably with money too to not get your hands dirty).