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The rich of today lack taste, they aren't funding the opera beacuse they watch marvel movies instead. In the past they were well read, educated and had class.

The rich of today lack taste, they aren't funding the opera beacuse they watch marvel movies instead. In the past they were well read, educated and had class. They would dress better, not wearing $1000 sneakers and designer sweatpants but tailored suits and Italian shoes. Talk better due to years of study. The women would walk around with books on their heads to learn to glide around the room ethereally. It doesn't sting as much when the guy who is richer than you is more cultured and put together. When he's an idiot with a mustard stain on his shirt just like you it's unbearable.

steveBK123 2y ago
Yes maybe it was a class thing. It's just astonishing how many universities / institutes were founded from ~1800-1900ish by rich industrialists to varying degrees - Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, Drexel, U of Chicago, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, WPI, RPI, NYU, Purdue, CalTech, . (Some of these are sort of public-private partnership "land grants") Maybe it's also a change in tax policy or relative cost of capital vs labor (universities are now expensive to operate due to their staff, not the buildings/land). Meanwhile the only schools you see being founded in the last 30 years are scam for-profits / virtual universities / diploma mills. One of these scams were even run by one of our presidential candidates.
- willcipriano 2y ago
  The work of Vermeer was largely brought to the world by the van Ruijven family. Henry Wriothesley gave us Shakespeare. Archduke Rudolph allowed Beethoven to echo down the ages. Bezos has a really big boat that requires bridges to be dismantled to move it. The wealthy of the past were a different caliber of people. Maybe the simplicity of life kept them more grounded?
  - steveBK123 2y ago
    Yeah that was my point upthread - I think there are just more businesses selling goods to every level of billionaire now .. like the consumer culture goes all the way up to the $100B level. Kind of a weird flattening of American culture. So they can buy bigger boats/homes/jets/etc rather than found a university or fund the arts...

steveBK123 2y ago

Yes maybe it was a class thing. It's just astonishing how many universities / institutes were founded from ~1800-1900ish by rich industrialists to varying degrees - Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, Drexel, U of Chicago, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, WPI, RPI, NYU, Purdue, CalTech, . (Some of these are sort of public-private partnership "land grants") Maybe it's also a change in tax policy or relative cost of capital vs labor (universities are now expensive to operate due to their staff, not the buildings/land). Meanwhile the only schools you see being founded in the last 30 years are scam for-profits / virtual universities / diploma mills. One of these scams were even run by one of our presidential candidates.

willcipriano 2y ago
The work of Vermeer was largely brought to the world by the van Ruijven family. Henry Wriothesley gave us Shakespeare. Archduke Rudolph allowed Beethoven to echo down the ages. Bezos has a really big boat that requires bridges to be dismantled to move it. The wealthy of the past were a different caliber of people. Maybe the simplicity of life kept them more grounded?
- steveBK123 2y ago
  Yeah that was my point upthread - I think there are just more businesses selling goods to every level of billionaire now .. like the consumer culture goes all the way up to the $100B level. Kind of a weird flattening of American culture. So they can buy bigger boats/homes/jets/etc rather than found a university or fund the arts...