robber baron

noun

1. History/Historical.,  a noble who robbed travelers passing through his lands.

2. a ruthlessly powerful U.S. capitalist or industrialist of the late 19th century considered to have become wealthy by exploiting natural resources, corrupting legislators, or other unethical means.

Word History and Origins

Origin of robber baron¹

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

“Like the first Gilded Age and Robber Baron era of over a century ago, today’s billionaire class is celebrating Gatsby era excess, building glitzy ballrooms, and wielding unprecedented wealth and power in hijacking our democratic system for tax cuts and subsidies,” said Chuck Collins, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., and author of the new book “Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet.”

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And while she, as heiress to the Post Cereal fortune, was not a “robber baron” in the traditional sense of the word, that’s the vibe he likes.

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“The transformation in executive compensation brought back the late nineteenth-century robber baron mindset of no-holds barred competition, individualism at the expense of institutions and community, and a zero-sum worldview in which those who ‘win’ by any means necessary become the toast of the town,” they write.

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Indeed, skeptics sometimes associate geoengineering with supervillain behavior, like a famous episode of The Simpsons in which the robber baron Mr. Burns blocks the sun.

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If we look at the robber baron era, there was outrage at the degree to which ultrawealthy people were directly engaging in politics and shaping outcomes and backing particular individuals who were winning and then passing policies that defended the wealth of these oligarchic figures.

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