Glad to see them finally labeled Robber Barons. Because that’s exactly what they are.
Oligarchs is IMO a better term for our times. Robbers Barons has an archaic sound to it.
I’ve also noticed defenders of corruption/oligarchs really dislike this term.
Robber barrons is nice in that it is archaic, and shows us things haven’t really ever changed.
I use oligarchs in polite conversation, but it’s nice to have options.
I was about to comment nearby that the phrase “billionaire robber barons” is redundant because there are no billionaires who are not living and profiting by means that should be illegitimate.
But you just reminded me that even “robber barons” is a conflicted term because it implies that there is or was some other type of more acceptable, more legitimate baron.
I suppose I’m probably playing “too socialist for school” here, but there never should have been any barons, and right now there ought not to be any billionaires. Their very existence is proof of a failed form of government.
I prefer plutocrats to oligarchs. It points out that the problem is wealth disparity, specifically
Gonna be another 100 years before anything does something.
I know a solution for billionaire robber barons.
In Australia we just made wage theft a criminal offence:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-30/wage-theft-crime-jail-intentional-fair-work/104758608
It’s absolutely fucking flabbergasting that that hasn’t always been the case, everywhere. I mean, WTF: the word “theft” is right there in the damn name!
ahh…
I see your society still believes in the rule of law.
I’ll believe it when I see a CEO extradited to Aus for it.
Cool, but I doubt anyone will actually see jail time. Maybe a fall guy, at best.
There were recently a few egregious cases that were heavily fined. I suspect that if they were prosecuted with these new laws the outcome would be prison, but I’m not a lawyer and I don’t pretend to be one on the Internet.
711 probably deserves it from what I’ve heard
Oh, but that’s but a ten year long accident, nothing deliberate /s
This is key. The right vs left, culture wars, even, I suspect, focus on proxy wars – all of it is meant to distract the people from the fact they have been bought and sold by the rich.
Rich vs everyone else is the conflict to focus. Everything else is distraction. And, what do you know? We The People have a lot in common if we start talking about wealth disparity.
Reframing is important
Yes, the issue is billionaire robber barons, AND the issue is that they are importing cheap labor to replace Americans, AND the cheap labor is suppressing wages for Americans. It’s even worse than the TFW program in Canada as it applies to skilled labor that is available in the US, but more expensive.
But the cheap labour is only cheap because the robber barrons allow it to be.
Yep, they are also being abused with the added “bonus” of helping pit workers against workers instead of all workers against the super-rich.
Err, H1B visas are part of that system of exploitation. Maybe we should let them fued over it some more.
Uh… How is it a distraction? It’s the same problem
No, but you see, this issue has the far right fighting amongst themselves. We must ignore this part of the issue and focus on the big picture where the far right are united. That would be better for some reason…
Pretty much yeah, the uber wealthy constantly distract from the fact that they’re not paying their fair share to society for all the benefits they get from its structure and organization
Gee, who could that be?
always has been
Soon to be trillionare
