The rich are not like us, and today's super rich are going to make us look back fondly on the era of the robber barons. From Susan Glasser in the New Yorker: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... - ThreadSky

donmoyn.bsky.social • 62 days ago

The rich are not like us, and today's super rich are going to make us look back fondly on the era of the robber barons. From Susan Glasser in the New Yorker:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/28/how-republican-billionaires-learned-to-love-trump-again

Comments

sawbuzz.bsky.social•62 days ago

Get ready to watch the treasury of the US quickly shrink. All the while, any and/or all programs to help AMERICAN CITIZENS cut cut or right out eliminated.

marccunat.bsky.social•62 days ago

If your household income is less than $360k a year, I’m sorry my friend, your taxes are going up under the Trump GOP tax plan.

clemensd1.bsky.social•62 days ago

The robber barons were only held back in their greed because half the country was undeveloped. Trump and his cronies have the whole country and a robust economy to pillage- and we sure as hell won’t get any foundations or charitable acts from those crooks!

rogerwallacetn.bsky.social•62 days ago

Started; going

jmckennajd.bsky.social•62 days ago

The robber barons had not read Ayn Rand. There was still the concept of noblesse oblige.

bohemey2k.bsky.social•62 days ago

Are they very short-sighted? At the end of the day, they should still need Americans to have enough money to purchase things. If they don't support critical infrastructure, education, and decent paying jobs, they may as well start moving into their bunkers now.

charleedacat.bsky.social•62 days ago

I would be okay with an exception that allows congressmen to trade sp500 (or similar) index funds at specific times. A bet on America so to speak

patranoid.bsky.social•62 days ago

📌

schnorkles.bsky.social•62 days ago

Very much moving from "Gilded Age" to Cyberpunk right now.

Absolutely thrilled, I hope the food cube rations are generous.

garrettfesler.bsky.social•62 days ago

Democratic leaders must stop bringing pillows to a knife fight. Use the tools available to protect the American people from the Trump-Musk MAGA fascists. Voting, donating, volunteering, peacefully protesting has not worked. Sign the petition.
Full statement here:
https://www.change.org/WeThePeople-DemandActionNow

blucowdawg.bsky.social•62 days ago

…nobody can buy their way outta the forever box…

crobruncato.bsky.social•62 days ago

📌

bakojenny.bsky.social•62 days ago

Can't wait to see ad billboards all over Yosemite like tRump wants.

johnywisc.bsky.social•62 days ago

Also it was common for the general public to hate these greedy bastard at the time. This new crop of greedy bastered have found a way to be perceived as a hip and cool. They have a loyal fan base.

johnywisc.bsky.social•62 days ago

With the original robber barons we got railroads and oil. What material are these new guys contributing to society?

criterdee.bsky.social•61 days ago

Pass through interest, Super PACs, off-shoring labor, stacked SCOTUS, Project 2025, Musk, trump, Ramaswamy, Heritage Society, US Tax Code, Electoral College, etc…….

All the above were created by the super-rich to perpetuate their fortunes on the backs of the remaining 300,000,000 of us.

djangomcfruit.bsky.social•62 days ago

Tenured professors at flagship universities shouldn't pretend they're like "us"

blackbirdchi.bsky.social•62 days ago

Too bad Glasser spent the last 4 years bashing the competent and democratic Biden administration

accountabilabuddy.bsky.social•62 days ago

Can't they all just chug some cocaine wine until they're not our problem anymore?

ebharrington.bsky.social•62 days ago

You're right: broligarchs are much worse than Robber Barons.
The latter partook of the Old Money ethos, which required good works (endowing libraries & unis) to justify wealth.
That's all gone, plus broligarchs want to impose their neo-feudal politics.Gift link: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/broligarchy-elon-musk-trump/680788/?gift=W7iVqOpF71s_ocPwDtJtzZb9d-QjoM_g_tMhVtwL76o&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

frankieface15.bsky.social•62 days ago

Yes.

kheine.bsky.social•62 days ago

Megalomaniacs.

starlightwishes.bsky.social•62 days ago

So ... they're looking to build kingdoms, where no one from the outside can get in ... and they have godlike Absolute Power.

The reality is ... civilizations advance better when they're open to lots of stable outside influence. People cut off from everything tend to stall out.

ebharrington.bsky.social•62 days ago

I call it neo-colonialism, because it's all extraction & exploitation, without even the minimal obligations monarchs once had toward their subjects.
If you're interested, I just published a short (120pp) book about this that made the Financial Times Best of 2024 list:
https://www.amazon.com/Offshore-Stealth-Wealth-Colonialism-Norton/dp/1324064943/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=130MVFD02STYR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cHuQClVioIuHPQW9N7Xu8-wQJMjIoU4NxwqFKLd1Fdo.HpH_d_UMK7uOGt0wNQvbaMnlrWgA8LfaSBZaqNgktmQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=offshore+Harrington&qid=1735342100&sprefix=offshore+harrington%2Caps%2C134&sr=8-1

adrianwashere.bsky.social•62 days ago

Gone are the days of noblesse oblige.

yankees24.bsky.social•62 days ago

Which of these people has made a difference through philanthropy? Bill Gates, but the right hates him. Elon Musk donates nothing, Trump donates nothing, Vifake donates nothing. They could have their name on every public building in America but they spend their money on making more.

altairamorbius.bsky.social•62 days ago

I would argue that Gates hasn’t really GIVEN anything, but he’s bought a lot of power in a way that looks like giving!

yankees24.bsky.social•62 days ago

Has he? He's saved millions of lives but hasn't tried to take over any government like Leon and Vifake.

altairamorbius.bsky.social•62 days ago

He basically could tell Obama to jump and Obama would say “how high?” So I think he was just better at being subtle.

ebharrington.bsky.social•62 days ago

Exactly. Much like Trump, they are the nouveaux riches: a noblesse without the oblige.

donmoyn.bsky.social•62 days ago

Zuckerberg did some good things eg donating to support election administration during the pandemic but immediately learned that he would be punished for doing so

evansutton.bsky.social•62 days ago

Gates' philanthropy is often (largely?) harmful snake oil. He's used it to meddle in everything from education policy in the US to privatizing healthcare delivery in the developing world, often with catastrophic results for people
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2022/07/how-bill-gates-makes-the-world-worse-off

yankees24.bsky.social•62 days ago

And he did donate $75mm for naming rights on SF General (Public) hospital.

fetidmoppet.bsky.social•62 days ago

Oof broligarchs might have legs

ebharrington.bsky.social•62 days ago

Like Shelley's Ozmandias, I hope!
(Trunkless and abandoned, a monument to misplaced self-regard.)

dageezer.bsky.social•62 days ago

At least J.P. Morgan found a way to be widely beneficial and turn a profit at the same time.

bigchaunc64.bsky.social•62 days ago

What also sucks is that when they've managed to strip every tax, regulation, union, and worker benefit while making everything privatized those fuckers will still find a way to feel like they're being screwed.

begemot13.bsky.social•61 days ago

Just where does a hedge fund manager acquire the skills to run a giant corporation... say like the US govt?

Trading shares isn't governing...

jaymarose.bsky.social•62 days ago

The election of 1888 sounds very familiar. Patronage is even coming back in the guise of reform! Patronage & tariffs. The 20th century is being repealed.

matunos.bsky.social•62 days ago

at long last the businessman's plot is coming to fruition

smeraldimark.bsky.social•62 days ago

I doubt that they'll recognize that their lifestyle is congruent with that of Strasbourg geese.

smeraldimark.bsky.social•62 days ago

And fail to notice the approbation for Luigi Mangione. Any policy correction on the part of the UHC types would be seen as weakness. We'll see more PR and security, but they're not seeing that they live in a violent country that's awash in arms. they are doomed to surprise when the Guillotines come

avirginian1.bsky.social•62 days ago

Wilentz is right on the money. A robber baron like Carnegie was brutal towards his workers but at least made contributions to the rest of society. You don't see Musk endowing anything anywhere.

To be clear, not a defense of Carnegie and co. Just saying how much worse Musk and co. are.

alonlevy.bsky.social•62 days ago

George Soros is a lot *more* civic-minded than John Rockefeller.

matunos.bsky.social•62 days ago

I would not call George Soros one of "Trump's billionaires"

alonlevy.bsky.social•62 days ago

No, but then the finance industry collectively is not consistently Trumpist - it was rather pro-Obama, for example. The Trumpier industries are not the financiers the article decries but the declining industrialists who think (((finance))) is destroying the country, plus the tech reactionaries.

matunos.bsky.social•62 days ago

When you write "Trumpier industries" are you referring specifically to the billionaires of those industries or using some other rubric? It seems like we got tech bros, professional wrestling, investment banking, money management, and real estate, among others.

itchystarfish.bsky.social•62 days ago

These oligarch's are certainly different but let's not put on the rose colored coke bottles. No need to ignore the birth of the pinkertons, and the robber barons using charity to keep their heads. Ghouls are ghouls, no matter the era.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/16/1143428885/the-new-gilded-age-2022

https://www.britannica.com/event/Homestead-Strike

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