Great piece Anand. Now I understand why we cannot depend - necessarily— on the rich to help fund candidates that offer new ideas to change our systems. For me, at the bottom of all of it is an unconscious misogyny that transcends gender that is also working feverishly to keep white men in control….of money. Thanks for this work.
I am interested in understanding not only about generational transfers of wealth (or lack thereof), but in generational trauma--and apparent connections between these phenomena.
In the 1970s, Leon Black's father, Eli, ran the conglomerate that, among other things, owned Chiquita bananas, and was attempting to help the company recover after a massive hurricane destroyed all the banana plantations--and wiped out the company's revenues. In that capacity, he was implicated in a bribe to the then-president of Honduras as part of a scheme to reduce taxes on banana exports. According to a NYTimes obituary, Eli's death plunging 44 stories from his office to Fifth Ave. below was classified as a suicide--it occurred just weeks before the SEC opened an investigation into the bribe. He was only 54. Leon was in college at Harvard at the time.
So despite the email peek into what preoccupies the ultra-wealthy lay deeper anxieties that wouldn't be part of such a superficial exchange. Undoubtedly, part of Leon's existential dread could be connected to not falling (pun not intended) to the same fate as his father.
Such a great piece, thanks. The banality of wealth preservation is so real and the time that the ultrarich put into it is shocking. It's definitely a "gamification" of the system, and it's financially smart and sophisticated when these men do it. Of course, on the other end of the wealth spectrum we can't have public assistance programs because of the overstated fear of someone living in poverty trying to game the system. Classy if you're rich...
Reaganomics didn’t work in the 80s and it doesn’t work now. Whoever thought up “trickle down economics” was just tricking the American people. The little guy is always getting screwed.
The only place their wealth ever "trickles down" to is their children and grandchildren. The Republicans choose to keep on subsidizing those funds with our tax contributions. Why is a single one still in office?
Thanks to 6 of our 9 Supreme Court justices, corporations and wealthy people can buy their votes.
A few years ago, I read an interview in the Palm Beach Post with a billionaire in Boca Raton. Asked whether he had any hobbies, the billionaire said he hadn't any. How did he spend his days? The billionaire said that every morning he went to his computer and did trades in stocks, bonds, whatever. He said he profited by about a million dollars a day doing this. That's what he did. That's all he thought about. He didn't need it. It didn't make his life richer. It was all he knew how to do.
This quote from John Kenneth Galbraith often comes to mind when talking about this topic:
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
Epstein was the ultimate con man who took use of fear and "the other" to new heights. By convincing the ultrawealthy that their wealth was being mismanaged (fear) not to mention could be taken by the "undeserving" (the other) through taxes for social programs, he alone could protect their wealth (savior). This was his road to wealth and provided him with the ability to not only feed his own perversity but engage whatever clients he could in the same behavior to hold them hostage through blackmail. The ingenious scheme of a truly twisted mind.
Definitely let’s not! The solution to this problem runs straight through Congress. No one should vote for any MoC who won’t swear to making all the rich pay their fair share of taxes.
Yes the sexual abuse must be prosecuted and the guilty pay but that’s not the main case here. The sex was a playground for these rich people who needed a break from screwing the rest of us of our money, our time and our futures.
You’ve uncovered and named our blind spot, Anand. The late great anthropologist Angeles Arrien used to say “if we can name it, we can change it.” This is where our work is. Let’s crack that baby open:
With gratitude. Saying what’s so when it’s so. Let’s do the real work of re-creation.
I relish the thought of these miserly billionaires' children gleefully blowing through their parents' carefully hoarded wealth, hopefully distributing some of it to good causes in the process. (Read the feel-good story of Sylvia Wilks, heiress of the multimillionaire cheapskate Hetty Green.) My dad once said it's a good thing rich people can't buy their way out of death, or they'd live forever.
Absolutely, let's NOT! Thanks for this stomach-churning and enraging picture of the ugly inner workings of the Rich Brain, and its exposition of the scam of so-called trickle down economics. I think we've seen quite enough evidence that it does not work, was never meant to work (honestly, I don't get how anyone ever bought it!). Capitalism has failed, as a system to base a healthy society on---though not of course for the guys at the top. So, yeah, let's NOT choose to maintain this class at our expense. I was recently slightly heartened listening to Clara Mattei, able to see, even if only dimly, how we might be able to being to reset.
Thank you, sir! Perhaps, after the next installment, you should publish & have booklets delivered via airplanes, all over WDC & places where oligarchs spend a lot of time. (Sorry - couldn’t help myself!)
This is the signal in the noise. Thank you, Anand, for doing the hard yards to find it. For one, you should be on Ezra Klein’s podcast with this as the topic. He may be interested in a riff on the topic of the wealthy’s obsession with wealth protection as a significant obstacle to the investment for abundance (book sales 👀)
Brilliant analysis
A key benefit, or luxury, of having wealth is to live where you want to live. It's nuts to play the tax domicile game as Julian Robertson did.
It’s like they’re allergic to taxes. Makes me think of that school kid that’d end up working twice as hard to not do the homework.
Great piece Anand. Now I understand why we cannot depend - necessarily— on the rich to help fund candidates that offer new ideas to change our systems. For me, at the bottom of all of it is an unconscious misogyny that transcends gender that is also working feverishly to keep white men in control….of money. Thanks for this work.
I find this series invaluable , really helpful
Am recommending it my Senators and Representative
I wish this series could be read into the Senate and Congress minutes
Great idea!
I am interested in understanding not only about generational transfers of wealth (or lack thereof), but in generational trauma--and apparent connections between these phenomena.
In the 1970s, Leon Black's father, Eli, ran the conglomerate that, among other things, owned Chiquita bananas, and was attempting to help the company recover after a massive hurricane destroyed all the banana plantations--and wiped out the company's revenues. In that capacity, he was implicated in a bribe to the then-president of Honduras as part of a scheme to reduce taxes on banana exports. According to a NYTimes obituary, Eli's death plunging 44 stories from his office to Fifth Ave. below was classified as a suicide--it occurred just weeks before the SEC opened an investigation into the bribe. He was only 54. Leon was in college at Harvard at the time.
So despite the email peek into what preoccupies the ultra-wealthy lay deeper anxieties that wouldn't be part of such a superficial exchange. Undoubtedly, part of Leon's existential dread could be connected to not falling (pun not intended) to the same fate as his father.
Think Jared Kushner.
Exactly, Robynne. Or his father-in-law, for that matter.
Such a great piece, thanks. The banality of wealth preservation is so real and the time that the ultrarich put into it is shocking. It's definitely a "gamification" of the system, and it's financially smart and sophisticated when these men do it. Of course, on the other end of the wealth spectrum we can't have public assistance programs because of the overstated fear of someone living in poverty trying to game the system. Classy if you're rich...
They are dragons. Miserable, cold, slow.
Their thoughts are not more valuable than our thoughts and they need to be taxed a lot higher than they are.
I don't feel sorry for them per se. But I really don't envy them.
Reaganomics didn’t work in the 80s and it doesn’t work now. Whoever thought up “trickle down economics” was just tricking the American people. The little guy is always getting screwed.
The only place their wealth ever "trickles down" to is their children and grandchildren. The Republicans choose to keep on subsidizing those funds with our tax contributions. Why is a single one still in office?
Thanks to 6 of our 9 Supreme Court justices, corporations and wealthy people can buy their votes.
A few years ago, I read an interview in the Palm Beach Post with a billionaire in Boca Raton. Asked whether he had any hobbies, the billionaire said he hadn't any. How did he spend his days? The billionaire said that every morning he went to his computer and did trades in stocks, bonds, whatever. He said he profited by about a million dollars a day doing this. That's what he did. That's all he thought about. He didn't need it. It didn't make his life richer. It was all he knew how to do.
This quote from John Kenneth Galbraith often comes to mind when talking about this topic:
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
Yup. That’s how the brilliant “Neutron Jack" Welch spent his time one he got the golden parachute from G.E.
Epstein was the ultimate con man who took use of fear and "the other" to new heights. By convincing the ultrawealthy that their wealth was being mismanaged (fear) not to mention could be taken by the "undeserving" (the other) through taxes for social programs, he alone could protect their wealth (savior). This was his road to wealth and provided him with the ability to not only feed his own perversity but engage whatever clients he could in the same behavior to hold them hostage through blackmail. The ingenious scheme of a truly twisted mind.
Definitely let’s not! The solution to this problem runs straight through Congress. No one should vote for any MoC who won’t swear to making all the rich pay their fair share of taxes.
Yes the sexual abuse must be prosecuted and the guilty pay but that’s not the main case here. The sex was a playground for these rich people who needed a break from screwing the rest of us of our money, our time and our futures.
We are all victims here in some way.
You’ve uncovered and named our blind spot, Anand. The late great anthropologist Angeles Arrien used to say “if we can name it, we can change it.” This is where our work is. Let’s crack that baby open:
With gratitude. Saying what’s so when it’s so. Let’s do the real work of re-creation.
I relish the thought of these miserly billionaires' children gleefully blowing through their parents' carefully hoarded wealth, hopefully distributing some of it to good causes in the process. (Read the feel-good story of Sylvia Wilks, heiress of the multimillionaire cheapskate Hetty Green.) My dad once said it's a good thing rich people can't buy their way out of death, or they'd live forever.
"...maybe let’s not?"
Absolutely, let's NOT! Thanks for this stomach-churning and enraging picture of the ugly inner workings of the Rich Brain, and its exposition of the scam of so-called trickle down economics. I think we've seen quite enough evidence that it does not work, was never meant to work (honestly, I don't get how anyone ever bought it!). Capitalism has failed, as a system to base a healthy society on---though not of course for the guys at the top. So, yeah, let's NOT choose to maintain this class at our expense. I was recently slightly heartened listening to Clara Mattei, able to see, even if only dimly, how we might be able to being to reset.
Thank you, sir! Perhaps, after the next installment, you should publish & have booklets delivered via airplanes, all over WDC & places where oligarchs spend a lot of time. (Sorry - couldn’t help myself!)
This is the signal in the noise. Thank you, Anand, for doing the hard yards to find it. For one, you should be on Ezra Klein’s podcast with this as the topic. He may be interested in a riff on the topic of the wealthy’s obsession with wealth protection as a significant obstacle to the investment for abundance (book sales 👀)