Politics is incredibly crazy in making an average man filthy rich and influential, think of Hegseth a Major in the US military controlling the affairs in Pentagon, and department of war. He commands the military and makes decisions alongside generals and CIA directors, just for being appointed by President Trump to run this department. The last time I watched him speak in the US senate chamber, he was demanding for a trillion dollar to finance the war against Iran. Even though the money doesn't go directly to him, having access to such amount of money puts him on the line to the kind of riches he wouldn't have imagined to possess his entire life, if he wasn't in this position.
We've had many of such occurrences here and it's no joke, but the biggest difference between your appointment and ours is that most of the requested for can be accounted for but in our case, alot of the appointment comes with the fundamental believe of stealing from the country, it's a dirty game.
From the OP's question, I don't think the politics can make someone extremely poor or stop the financial growth of individuals because they are lots of ways people can earn money, of course prices of things will go high but humans are very dynamic