Sues Blues

The Modern Day Robber Baron

Sue Dhillon

Now before we get into who they are and the no-good they’re up to let’s first address what a Robber Baron is.

Robber Baron
The Modern Day Robber Baron

A robber baron was a term from late 19th century to describe powerful American industrialists and financiers who accumulated mass fortunes through practices that were considered unethical or exploitative. The term combines “robber” (suggesting theft or exploitation) with “baron” (a feudal noble), implying these businessmen wielded power like medieval lords.

How Old School Robber Barons Made Their Millions

These industrial leaders typically:

  1. Built monopolies or near-monopolies in their industries by eliminating competition through aggressive tactics
  2. Used their economic power to influence politics and legislation in their favor – Sounds familiar, eh?
  3. Employed harsh labor practices, including low wages, long hours, and unsafe working conditions – Ok, I see.
  4. Utilized controversial business practices like price fixing, stock manipulation, and predatory pricing – Oh yeah, just like a certain Mr. Somebody from the 21st century we all know.

The O.G. Robber Barons

The Billiard Room, Mentmore House by Roger Fenton
Original public domain image from Getty Museum

The Most Notable Of The Old School Bunch:

The Old School Ones Weren’t All Bad

However, it’s worth noting that many of these early “Robber Barons” also became major philanthropists later in life, setting up foundations, universities, and cultural institutions some of which are still around today. This continues to lead us to ongoing historical debates about their ultimate legacy – were they exploitative businessmen who harmed society, or innovative entrepreneurs who helped build modern America?

That’s up for debate still. While it’s great to give back and what cost and is it dirty money we’re paying forward? What are your thoughts? Sounds kind of like that Robin Hood thing, the legendary outlaw who stole from the rich to give to the poor, but it’s different still.

The term Robber Baron much like so many other terms has had a modern day revival of sorts especially in very recent times. It’s sometimes applicable to modern day business tycoons who are seemingly accumulating wealth through controversial or aggressive business practices.

The Modern Day Robber Barons

Now onward to the here and now and the current line up of so-called Robber Barons:

There are key differences however form the original robber baron era with the modern day crook and while some on this list are far more crooked than others the notable differences are:

What’s particularly interesting is how digital marketplaces and platforms have created new forms of market dominance that differ from traditional monopolies.

Robber Baron Musk And Zuckerberg

The two of the modern day bunch that really stand up and out are the Nazi saluting Elon Musk, (Yes, it was a Nazi salute and the gesture very much speaks for itself as the Guardian goes on to explain in the above link) who is the largest private contributor to Donald J. Trump. He has amassed a following of more than 200 million since buying Twitter and renaming it X and a net worth of half a trillion making him the richest man in the world. It’s to be noted his net worth more than quadrupled after backing Trump’s most recent run for office. Elon, a.k.a. Elonald stands out because he is an attention hungry narcissist who has been fan-boying Trump for months leading up to the election. Not only did Musk’s contribution help Trump cement a win, but his incessant ranting and perpetration of disinformation on X helped sway public opinion, especially that of young white men. They voted for Trump in droves.

With the win Musk has managed to create his own department in the White House – DOGE – the Department of Government Efficiency talking Trump into slashing money from federal grants, children’s cancer research and more. He is the worst of the bunch and while his shortcomings are far too many to note here let’s just say there’s more bad stuff we can say about this sociopath.

Mark Zuckerberg – he is very befitting of this title as well considering the platforms on which he makes his billions. Not to mention since the technocracy is starting to reign supreme with Trump’s second term Zuckerberg has gone on the offensive by ponying up to Trump with a newly promised no fact checking policy on Facebook. He knows in order to buddy up to a compulsive liar Trump, fact checking will be a meager and futile battle that meta will never win especially now that he is back in office spewing disinformation at lightning speed.

Jeff Bezos has also been cuddling up to Trump first during a what was supposed to be private meeting that Elon stormed at Mar A Lago and then front and center at the inauguration where his girlfriend forgot her shirt.

We can only wonder and speculate what these tech bros are hoping to get from Trump, but something tells me it has to do with $$$ and power.

To read about another corrupt man checkout this post here that I wrote in moment of heated passion against his awful regime that eventually came crumbling and tumbling down.

Karma really is a bitch.

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