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All you have to do is follow the money. Where did virtually all of the dominant politicians go? The Obamas, Bushes, Clintons, Cruz, etc all went through a very
by aaron-lebo 10y ago
All you have to do is follow the money.
Where did virtually all of the dominant politicians go? The Obamas, Bushes, Clintons, Cruz, etc all went through a very limited set of schools.
Where did virtually all of the leaders of the big companies come from (Gates, Zuckerberg)? A very limited set of schools.
Where do the heads of media and Wall Street go? A very limited set of schools.
How connected is tech with politics now?
Schmidt was an informal advisor and major donor to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, and began campaigning the week of October 19, 2008, on behalf of the candidate.[47] He was mentioned as a possible candidate for the Chief Technology Officer position, which Obama created in his administration,[48] and Obama considered him for Commerce Secretary.[49] After Obama won in 2008, Schmidt became a member of President Obama's transition advisory board and has since become a member of the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).[50] Schmidt has served on Google’s government relations team.
How connected is tech with finance now?
Google's current CFO was a Morgan Stanley exec.
And then there are really shady figures who have operated within these institutions for years like Jeffrey Epstein:
He is also a longtime friend of Prince Andrew, Duke of York: they have stayed at each other's homes, and have vacationed together in Thailand. In December 2010, the prince was a guest in Epstein's New York residence for several days, shortly after Epstein completed his Florida sentence for soliciting an underage girl. His dinner with Andrew at the mansion was attended by (among others) Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, Charlie Rose, and Woody Allen.[9] The 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) 9-story mansion is just off Fifth Avenue and overlooks the Frick Collection. It is reported[by whom?] to be the largest private residence in Manhattan, having originally been built as the Birch Wathen School.
You just need to follow the money. There's way too much money at the top controlled by a relatively small group of people.
- jonny_eh 10y agoZuckerberg and Gates both dropped out of school. Steve Jobs didn't go to an Ivy League school.
- pdeuchler 10y agoWoz went to Berkeley
- throwaway98237 10y agoWell played.
- aaron-lebo 10y agoJobs is the oddity and always was. Dropping out of Harvard is irrelevant; they both had access to the same connections both in school and before it. Gates: His father was a prominent lawyer, and his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way. Gates' maternal grandfather was JW Maxwell, a national bank president. Zuckerberg: He transferred to the exclusive private school, Phillips Exeter Academy. Money and connections. To be fair, Zuckerberg's family doesn't appear to have been overly wealthy.
- MarkPNeyer 10y agohttps://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=phillips%20exeter%20tuition https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... A high school which school costs 36k/year. It doesn't have to be a sinister conspiracy. It's explainable simply as "people help their friends" and "people tend to be friend with those in the same social circles" and "there are a small number of people with larger amounts of wealth and power, who all run in the same circles."
- vonmoltke 10y agoMy wife's high school currently costs the same as Zuck's.[1] Her family didn't pay a dime; she was a scholarship kid. Her family could nowhere near afford to send her and her sister there if they hadn't both been scholarship kids. Don't paint everyone who goes through those schools as being papered and connected. [1] https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=millbrook+school+tuition https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...
- Neeek 10y agoIsn't that the point though? By definition, that leaves the vast majority of the school to be papered and connected (or at least able to pay). Scholarships are exactly the minority in this case. (I understand we're trying to dispel stereotypes and prejudice here, not necessarily debunk the original point.)
- throwaway98237 10y agoWhich schools did Zuckerberg and Gates drop out of? (Harvard. And, incidentally they both came from already very well-off families.) And Steve Jobs dropped out of a school in what I would call the "New Ivy League". I haven't anything against good schools. Just that, I'm starting to see a pattern here, no? (edit: No he didn't. Was remembering the Jobs' fact incorrectly. He went to / dropped out of Reed College. My bad.)