Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do with Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More

Join economist Rob Larson, and Real News Network editor-in-chief Max Alvarez for a dissection of the lifestyle, moral bankruptcy, and stupidly large sums of money hoarded by the billionaire class.

The fact that we live in one of the most unequal societies in the history of the world was already common knowledge before the richest man in the world and his teenage lackeys started raiding federal offices this week.

Lists of “richest people in x country” may be easy to come by, but how much do we really know about the disgustingly wealthy who sit atop our global economic system? Who are they, really? How did they accumulate their ill-gotten gains? And what kind of depravities do they use to maintain their positions?

In this discussion with Real News Network editor Max Alvarez, economist Rob Larson will turn the weapons of class-war wielded by the elite against them—crunching the numbers on their balance sheets and combing through their fawning profiles in the Wall Street Journal so that you don’t have to. Larson will build on his book, Mastering the Universe to argue that ending corporate dominance of our society starts with stoking the fires of righteous anger by appreciating all of the sordid ways the ruling class make us miserable, break our society to pieces, and destroy the planet in their pursuit of ever-increasing power and profit.

As we behold whole continents on fire, pandemics thrashing public health system to smithereens, and declining lifespans for the vast majority, Larson and Alvarez will make the case that the only way forward is to yank on the emergency break and give capitalism the boot.

***Please note: This discussion was recorded on February 12, 2025.***

Speakers:

Rob Larson is a professor of economics at Tacoma Community College and author of Mastering the Univers, Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley and Capitalism vs. Freedom: The Toll Road to Serfdom. He writes for Jacobin and Dollars & Sense, and is the House Economist for Current Affairs. He lives in Tacoma, Washington.

Maximillian Alvarez is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Executive Director of The Real News Network (TRNN) in Baltimore. He is the founder and co-host of Working People, "a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today," and the author of The Work of Living, a collection of interviews with US workers recorded during Year One of COVID-19. Prior to joining TRNN, he was an Associate Editor at the Chronicle Review. He is a columnist for In These Times, and his writing has been featured in outlets like The Nation, Poynter, Boston Review, The Baffler, Current Affairs, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and as an analyst and commentator, he has appeared on programs like PBS NewsHour, Breaking Points, Democracy Now!, The New Republic, NPR’s 1A, The Hill’s Rising, and more.