The $35-an-hour private jet
A plywood fuselage in Boyle Heights rents for less than dinner. A real grounded Gulfstream costs twelve times more. The economics of the fake-jet studio, and the correction the press never printed.
Section
Category: The Machine
How the illusion industry actually works: what a fake private jet costs by the hour, who sells followers and for how much, which companies rent the handbags, and what the disclosure rules require. This section reports on systems, not individuals.
Who pays for the candid photo
A publicist says he paid a star $50,000 for a couple of street shots. A declared sponsored post from the same tier costs over $1M. That gap explains the whole staged-candid economy.
The disclosure rules everyone is breaking
$53,088 per violation, a 5-0 vote, more than 700 companies already on notice - and, so far, not a single penalty judgment under the FTC's flagship fake-reviews rule.
The wardrobe is rented, and that’s a real industry
$45 a month for a Chanel bag. $50 an hour for the room. $425 an hour for a jet that never leaves. The published price list for an aspirational photograph.