Your value depends on your position. In our society, no matter how humble or polite you are, you won’t have any real worth. If your footing isn’t strong, you remain powerless.
If your society is like that and only rewards people with money, it means you will get mediocres everywhere, no real life and no effort towards personal and national growth because everyone will be striving to make money from whatever means including illicit ways. That will definitely lead to backwardness in economic growth.
The question then arises: Is it only those with wealth and power who can get away with wrongdoing? Or should there be proper justice for every act of injustice?
While growing up, I heard good name is better than riches. Meaning there was reward and national recognition for hard work, so what is now happening in your country is overriding of what has been.
In a sane system, the understanding of hard work pays (though smart hard work) is still operational and people still receive awards plus recognition in their different respective field and career and not just about wealth.
The wealthy though try to influence systems of justice in different countries but societies that have built independent institutions have kept to rule of law that even the wealthy get punished for their wrongful doing.