These billions of dollars are not held in money, but rather held in terms of things which convey control over resources and other people’s lives.

Under this scenario, one must imagine that people would eventually start growing food and making things on land that they do not “own” and trading it amongst themselves, until some new thing that people actually have access to becomes money. Even hiring security to prevent that ceases to be possible, because paying that security means giving some of that money to someone else

Consider the plight of horses following the invention of the automobile. You might think that if the costs of feeding a horse exceeded the value that could be gained by employing its labor and the farmers therefore as rational economic actors no longer provided them with food, they would go into fields regardless of ownership and eat the grass there. But actually what happened with most of them is they were slaughtered and rendered into meat and glue. I’m sure a lot of people found the idea of a bunch of feral horses running around inconvenient, and they control the land and its access, and the horses and their movements, with fences and ropes and such.

There is now effective mass surveillance, there are now drones with guns, and there is automation dramatically reducing the number of people required for most tasks. I don’t think it’s actually the case that maintaining our cooperation, or even our lives, is the only option faced by the very wealthy to retain their power.