Fun Police Episode 2: The Billionaire

Every prohibitionist movement needs its funders. Its moneymen. Usually, there are powerful industrialists who’ve made it big and are “giving back” by restricting choices of the little people. For popular movements against alcohol in the 1900s, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford were the principal philanthropists. Neoprohibitionists now rely on a man with a name as iconic as his money: Michael Bloomberg.

Through his three-term New York City mayoral stint and global funding campaign against sugar, salt, trans-fats, and vaping products, Fun Police Captain Michael Bloomberg cuts above the prohibitionist industrialists of the past. With his major connections and funding to hundreds of NGOs and global treaty organizations, including the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and groups like Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids, Bloomberg’s quests have gone far beyond simple education to directly shape policy that deprives consumers of making their own choices.

For more, we interview investigative journalist Marc Gunther, who has studied this in depth, and unveils the unfortunate human toll of Bloomberg’s crusade against vaping products used by adults.

Act 1: The fruits of capitalism grow poisonous

Act 2: The Bloomberg Terminal cause

Act 3: Where it all ends

Released on November 22, 2023

More resources of the Fun Police campaign: https://consumerchoicecenter.org/fun-police/

Marc Gunther’s website: https://www.marcgunther.com/

Check out the weekly podcast ConsEUmer: https://consumerchoicecenter.org/conseumer/

Check out Consumer Choice Podcast (formerly Consumer Choice Radio): https://consumerchoicecenter.org/radio/

Fun Police is a Consumer Choice Center original podcast. This episode was written, researched, and edited by Yaël Ossowski. Contributing research by Bill Wirtz.