Citations Needed Ep 228 - Billionaires as Insta-Experts: How Our Media Conflates Extreme Wealth with Expertise
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Sep 24, 2025 
Rob Larson, an economics professor and commentator on wealth and big tech, joins the conversation. They explore how media elevates billionaires to expert status across diverse topics, often sidelining genuine experts. Larson critiques the intertwining of wealth with moral authority, pointing out how philanthropy influences public policy and media narratives. The discussion addresses the fallacies of treating economic power as expertise, the hypocrisy in billionaire philanthropy, and the implications for democracy as oligarchs shape public discourse.
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Wealth Is Mistaken For Expertise
- Mainstream media routinely treat extreme wealth as automatic expertise across policy fields.
- Hosts argue this confers undue authority despite billionaires' lack of relevant experience.
Batman Moment Summarizes The Premise
- The Justice League clip reduces a superpower to being rich and that satirically captures media behavior.
- Hosts use it to show cultural acceptance of wealth-as-power narratives.
Long History Of Wealth Shaping Policy
- Historical precedent shows wealthy elites have long claimed policymaking authority.
- Hosts trace this from Carnegie's era to modern philanthropic influence.
