Perkins: Next Level Asshattery

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've no doubt by now heard or read how Kleiner Perkins founder Tom Perkins recently compared the "persecution" of the wealthiest 1% of Americans to Kristallnacht in a letter to the Wall Street Journal. As you can probably guess, lots of folks had trouble making the connection between a whiny billionaire's imaginary problems and the pogrom that led to the extermination of 6 million Jews. Predictably, Perkins has been making the rounds on the apology circuit, and here's his mea culpa for Bloomberg. What cracks me up is how out of touch these guys often are. Rich old white guys who believe their own press might not be good for much, but they're damn entertaining around a hot mic because left to their own devices and belief sets, they can be pretty awful human beings. How bout you just STFU and count your money Tom, mmmkay? Enjoy:

 

6MM Jews, 3MM of my people, and 11MM total. Catholic Polish folks don't make a lot of noise (I'm an exception) but we got a raw deal too before the Soviets came to 'liberate' us. Just adding that, I've kind of always resented how one group gets all the press.

Small personal note to Perkins: Nothing says out of touch like "I'm not out of touch, this is like the Holocaust". No Perkins, it's not, my grandmother watched you on TV and she said it was nothing quite like Auschwitz when she 'visited'. She also pointed out that creating jobs by spending several hundred thousand dollars on one watch is a VERY ineffient way to create jobs. Stick to stocks and let real system administrators handle the work of running a nation.

/ moving along

More seriously, this kind of thing makes it harder for objectivity to be maintained in the public debate. If a guy steps up and says that he understands the frustration of a lot of people, has solutions, and is actively creating jobs...then he's a job creator and a leader. If he whines about a few people not liking him personally, and then calls upon a historical genocide to try and guilt people into giving him sympathy...yeah, he's a douche and not a leader. He's very rich and already won, I'm not sure how bad he thinks the average person feels for him between dealing with their own problems without the benefit of a personal fortune. STFU Perkins, you're making us look bad, the public is only going to support making life more miserable for the rank and file of Wall Street. Congrats on the fortune and maybe someday I'll be as rich, but stick to stocks and let the real administrators run a nation.

Get busy living
 

Now you're Polish? God just pick one.

This administration can't run its way out of a paper bag with an MP40. Perkins is definitely an asshat though.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

My man, you need to be honest if you say something like this,.."6MM Jews, 3MM of my people, and 11MM total. Catholic Polish folks don't make a lot of noise (I'm an exception) but we got a raw deal too before the Soviets came to 'liberate' us. Just adding that, I've kind of always resented how one group gets all the press.".... from my family's experience, their Polish neighbors sold them out, and Poland largely accepted Nazi's and Hitler. Not to mention their pathetic attempt to defend the country. Every Polish person I run into all say the same thing "my family saved Jews during the war", really? then how the fuck was the Jewish population in Poland largely wiped out. Additionally, there are plenty of stories (my family included) of them going back to Poland after being liberated being beatne, and not to mention having their property/land stolen from them, so please cut the shit my man. A minority of Polish helped the jews at best. Maybe your family did, but there is a reason people dont talk about polish suffering

 

Given Obama bitches about income inequality and declares war on success at his every address to the nation, I don't see it stopping any time soon.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

@ BTbanker - it would be nice but at this point they're like Michael Jackson....they keep going on TV and doing/saying stupid stuff. It's like they're trying to compete with that Canadian brat. Think, we're looking at lower corporate earnings than expected 1. because corporate spending is down but also 2. people don't have money to spend...it's all sitting in corporate treasuries. Now we're supposed to feel bad for the shareholders? Rich people are doing a pretty bad job of marketing their position...either that or consider this:

I'm not sure that a lot of people on this board have taken any meaningful look at history, especially in the US. Either the gini coeffient evens out or a very destructive cycle of capitalism destroying activity will start. At that point, it's the fault of the people at the top. Several decades now, things are looking worse for the middle class...what do you think they will do? I'm a capitalist, I don't want that, no one should want that. But it's what we're looking at unless the trend starts to reverse. No one hates the rich, that's a GOP talking point, no one really cares to be honest. However, when working people feel like they're getting ripped off, they act like the monkeys in that study Eddie posted a while ago: they start to tear the system apart.

You can agree or disagree....that's just how it is though.

Get busy living
 

LOL I just realized that there's a lot of angst here following the State of Union speech. You have the rationalists, the liberal tools, and the conservative tools. This topic has also been covered ad nausea and apparently you can't be rational here, you just have to pick a camp.

Get busy living
 

I disagree with Perkins' use of comparisons and overall exaggeration. However, there is a serious issue within the United States that has slowly developed over the past 6 or 7 years around demonizing the successful people. Give it 50-60 more years to exacerbate and I can definitely see a more geographically separated society due to security reasons.

 

I agree. Perkins may be off his rocker with a comparison to the Holocaust, but that doesn't invalidate the core issue- that slowly but surely, success, particularly financial success on a large scale, is being targeted as bad or wrong by much of society. Personally, I think it's just widespread jealously focused into a semi-organized sentiment and relabeled something like "Income inequality" or "The 1%".

 
Zargo:

I agree. Perkins may be off his rocker with a comparison to the Holocaust, but that doesn't invalidate the core issue- that slowly but surely, success, particularly financial success on a large scale, is being targeted as bad or wrong by much of society. Personally, I think it's just widespread jealously focused into a semi-organized sentiment and relabeled something like "Income inequality" or "The 1%".

I call shotty on the first dropship to Elysium.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

Guys, guys, we're just trading anecdotes here. I thought UFO's second paragraph brought the point home. We can all AynRandurbate about how this guys creates jobs, etc., but the point is, some highly successful people really think and say some odd and stupid things when they come down and speak to the unwashed masses.

 

I'm pointing out that Eddie's post of 6MM is excluding the 5MM other people who matter just as much. Not sure what the problem with that is. Sorry for getting nasty, it was uncalled for, for all I know I'm going after some 20 something punk. But the point remains.

More to the orignal point, I'm telling you that someone who actually lived through the death camps is calling Perkins on his crap. My original comment is a very pointed addendum to Eddie's....who by the way, no one here seems to have the cajones to argue with about Perkins being and asshat.

Get busy living
 
Best Response

Obviously this is a ridiculous remark, but are we seriously participating in this self-congratulatory circle of condemnation? Does anyone really require a news article to explain to them that "class warfare" is not analogous to Kristallnacht? Does it really make us feel more righteous to pass around a video of the rantings of a nutcase?

This is somewhat ironic, considering that the Occupy Wall Street campaign against the infamous "1%" was rife with anti-Semitism. Signs reading "Nazi Bankers - Wall Street", "Hilter's Bankers" or "Blame the Jews" were commonplace in Zuccotti Park. Celebrity chef Mario Batali compared Wall Street bankers to Hitler and Stalin, later calling them "as bad as repressive autocrats". Jamie Dimon has been routinely labeled a "crook" or "thief" by respected columnists. MIT professor Simon Johnson called Dimon "The Most Dangerous Man in America". On Facebook, I've read posts from friends complaining that, thanks to Wall Street, living in middle class America is "like living in a third world country".

People say (and believe!) bizarre and outrageous things every day. Committing headlines with pages and pages of sophomoric indignity reinforces the equally outrageous impression that Perkins' view is somehow representative of the views of the wealthy. In a twist of fate, there can be no doubt that Perkins' remarks will now become the buckshot for anti-rich rhetoric, as if quoting a lunatic as your putative "opposition" buttresses the truth of your point.

It's unclear to me what promoting stories like this - particularly on this site - accomplishes.

"For all the tribulations in our lives, for all the troubles that remain in the world, the decline of violence is an accomplishment we can savor, and an impetus to cherish the forces of civilization and enlightenment that made it possible."
 
Edmundo Braverman:
NorthSider:

It's unclear to me what promoting stories like this - particularly on this site - accomplishes.

Because this is a site dedicated to Wall Street careers, and Perkins is an absolute giant in the world of venture capital.

Didn't mean it as a jab against you, it's certainly plastered all over financial blogs today.

But all this indicates to me is that not all venture capitalists - no matter how titanic - would make successful politicians (nor would all OWS protesters or all celebrity chefs). Just because the guy made billions investing in early stage internet companies doesn't mean we should be soliciting his advice on public policy.

I just don't see how it is productive to pass the ball around so everyone can issue their self-righteous statements of reproach, when Perkins' comments are intuitively preposterous.

Every couple months you can count on a front page headline excoriating the most recent insensitive Holocaust or Nazi comparison. I don't feel any more cultured from the exercise.

"For all the tribulations in our lives, for all the troubles that remain in the world, the decline of violence is an accomplishment we can savor, and an impetus to cherish the forces of civilization and enlightenment that made it possible."
 

Northsider, a true rationalist. Not being sarcastic, you're pretty great. A dying breed.

Because when you're in a room full of smart people, smart suddenly doesn't matter—interesting is what matters.
 

Guy was simply trying to say that the government is engaging in a campaign of blame and defamation. Hitler used class warfare and blame the rich in WWII as many other dictators have throughout time. I doubt he literally meant that the current attack on the wealthy or well off is literally equal to gassing people.

But of course people just die waiting to twist every word and get faux worked up about things.

 
TheKing:

Let's not pretend this happened in a vacuum. The fact remains that this guy is a god father of Silicon Valley and the business paper of record (WSJ) chose to publish this.

A far cry from some dickhead holding up a dumb sign in a park.

Why is a sanctimonious echo chamber more valid when it concerns the political ramblings of a venture capitalist rather than "some dickhead" OWS protester? Because he's rich? Because he wears a tie? Isn't the pontification of some middle-class "dickhead" just as relevant re: class warfare as Perkins' half-baked musings?

Suppose this thread were about that "OWS dickhead". Would we take anything more or less away from the conversation? Would we not just be scrolling through thousands upon thousands of self-reinforcing admonitions, each successive comment validating the mindless "outrage" of the previous?

It all bears an uncanny resemblance to a scene from Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize-winning play Clybourne Park where a group of social misfits endure an agonizingly passive-aggressive debate about making renovations to an old home is morally justified considering its history. Ron McCants describes:

They discuss the history of the neighborhood that goes as far back as German immigrants. Kevin is offended by how the conversation about the history of the neighborhood becomes an attack on Black people. Steve asks for everyone to admit that the entire subtext of the conversation is informed by Race. His statement launches the characters into a fueled exchange about whether or not racism is part of the difficulty they are having in addressing the changes to the property. They challenge each other’s notions of what is considered offensive. They accuse each other of being racists. The characters jab at each other with racial, sexist and homophobic jokes. They become offended when they feel that their particular group has been belittled

As the scene escalates, it becomes clear that each characters' "offended" reactions are more socially programmed than authentic indignation. It's all pharisaic pulpiteering; each group validates their own mutual biases and rebukes the others' "offensiveness".

News like this is unthinking. This is the tee-ball of pedantic moralizing: the media serves up the most hate-worthy villain so we can each take refreshing swipes at our easy target. It's not challenging, interesting, novel, cerebral or deliberative; it has no redeeming qualities other than recertifying our own social platitudes.

"For all the tribulations in our lives, for all the troubles that remain in the world, the decline of violence is an accomplishment we can savor, and an impetus to cherish the forces of civilization and enlightenment that made it possible."
 

I don't really understand what you said but it all sounds excellent. SB for making me think of Chuck Norris.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

Notable differences between Perkins and an OWS protester:

--One has unfettered access to large media outlets that are open to his point of view, one is a guy with a sign --One wears a tie (and has made millions / billions of dollars), one is a guy with a sign

Your argument is essentially "we shouldn't talk about this because it's obviously a dumb thing to say." That's just your point of view, stop trying to hold it up as some sort of higher opinion that we should all agree with.

 

Reminds me of Schwarzman comparing Obama's proposal to tax carried interest to Hitler invading Poland. For all their success and presumed acumen, not all top investors exercise common sense when making public statements.

 

@ TheKing - I'd look at this way: by these guys saying such stupid things, they make the class disconnect case by default. People say "we're not getting paid enough and our leaders don't understand our situation", some guy comes out and says "you people hate rich people, you are like Nazis". If you're a politician playing to the crowd, all he has to do is wink and say "See, I was right, the rich are out of touch and I'm going to save you". Guys like Perkins just piss off the average citizen and make it easier for politicians to do dumb things. Bitching and whining about it only feeds it, no one cares what a few so-called libertarians think 'should be', that's how it is.

Better this guy would say nothing, and not dignify the whole debate.

The goal of the current policy platform (note, policy not political) is to boost (one way or another) wages commesurate to the increased money supply. You can't have it all flow to one place and stay there without the massive imbalance throwing off the whole system. The cash infusion is just part one, now it has to circulate in the real economy and not just the financialized part of it. The people that they're trying to reach with this are the "my paycheck doesn't buy what it used to, but unions are socialist eeevils and the illuminati FED is to blame"....but they just don't seem to want to think clearly. The reality is that the gov't and industry are inextricably interwined and always have been at the top end. This is just the nature of things.

Get busy living
 

King, it's simpler, the one guys is making the case of the people with signs.

Meanwhile, people in Kiev are dismantling the city, taking over gov't buildings, beating businessmen in the street, and every childish moron in America who talks of 'revolution' thinks it would play out differently here. Worse than pushing of a foreign power, which is what America's war of Indepenance really was, is a purely interal war that would screw things up more like the Civil War...we really can do better than that. Coming from a family that [barely] escaped the revolution in 1917 (yeah, we were the 1%), watching the extreme ends of the political spectrum goad the public during a period of unrest is kind of unsettling. You grow up hearing about how these things start, then this happens on TV. Things aren't close to the violent flashpoint, but staying on the current trajectory for 5-10 more years, yeah, people will start acting kind of nutty.

Get busy living
 

No one is beating up businessmen in Kiev. That's not part of the protests. It's about European integration and government corruption/incompetence. In fact, I would go so far as to say they are the opposite of OWS. They would all give a left nut to have the same opportunities as we have here.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

Has anyone seen this?

Books written by Thomas Perkins :

1) Classic SUPERCHARGED Sports Cars (ISBN 0-9612268-0-3) Published in 1984, this is Perkins first hand account on the world class collection of his pre-WWII classic car collection, titled This is a personal account of the handling and "simultaneously exciting and exasperating" characteristics of his collection of supercharged Bugattis, Mercedes, Alfas, one Squire, and his Duesenberg Type SJ.

2) Sex and the Single Zillionaire, (ISBN 0-06-085167-8) published In January 2006, this is Perkins first romance novel, which he dedicated to Steel. The plot of the book is based on a reality TV idea which was pitched to Perkins, where he would date a series of women and choose one to marry. He claims that "no 'ghost' did the writing." Proceeds from the book will be donated to Harvard University. (I might actually have to get this book, this sounds like a fun read)

3) Valley Boy: The Education of Tom Perkins. (ISBN 1-59-240313-1) published in November 2007, this is Perkins memoir. Perkins discussed the book, his time at HP, and his sailboat with Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes in September 2007.

4) Mine's Bigger: The Extraordinary Tale of the World's Greatest Sailboat and the Silicon Valley Tycoon Who Built It.

 

"You're just jealous". Hell of a comeback. To put things in perspective, people are WAY more jealous of the folks in showbiz/sports who make it big but they give them less flak overall. Anyone want to take a crack at that one?

BTW, I found a 'deport Beiber' petition on the US immigration site if anyone wants to sign.

Get busy living
 

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Get busy living
 

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