What does wealth represent?

Wealth symbolizes power. The Grudder higher-ups are used to fat paychecks and trampling over Avalon's average citizen because they can. The rich attend countless parties at fancy country clubs or in each other's large estates, but their lifestyle is manipulative and fake. Veronica worries about being found dead because other rich women might take her clothes and gossip about her death. Grudder officials clean up the graffiti in the town that exposes their secret - they are the reason that many islanders have cancer. The officials use their wealth and power to hide the fact that poisonous material from the factory is leaking into the town, causing infertility and cancer. The wealthy continue in their frivolous ways, ignoring the problem.