6 ms·

The Richest of the Rich, Proud of a New Gilded Age (2007)

48 points by siavosh 11y ago

siavosh 11y ago
OP here, just to add some context. I remember reading this piece back in 2007 when I lived in NYC and worked on software on Wall Street, and this line stuck with me: “I think this is a time of great prosperity and a time of great danger" ...which was in direct contrast to the self aggrandizing pride of the main character in the piece, Sanford I. Weill. Within a few a months, if I recall, almost everything he was defending and boasting of in the interview was proven to be a complete farce, delusion and some criminal, as the world neared another Great Depression. Large amounts of human suffering ensued (and still does) as a result of what happened. I really wish there was a resource that would collect pieces like this, meaning, journalism right before some large societal self-inflicted disaster (war, financial etc) where media and cultural hype helped blind everyone to impending catastrophe. When the idolizing puff journalism and self-congratulation of industry heads reach a deafening crescendo, it's time to brace yourself.
- adwhit 11y ago
  The tragedy, though, is because of the way the very rich are embedded at the very top of political and economic power structures, they got away scott-free and are now more powerful than ever [1]. Their wealth is pure rent-extraction and they will happily consume and destroy every person and resource on this planet before they voluntarily surrender a single cent ("nu-philanthropy" notwithstanding). These are complicated political problems that I think the tech community cannot solve on it's own (and possibly lacks the language to even discuss sensibly). [1] e.g. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/19/world-wealth-oxfam_n_6499798.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/19/world-wealth-oxfam_...
  - maaku 11y ago
    Well there is some hope for a technical miracle in things like Freicoin. But very limited hope given the scale of the issue and the power of entrenched wealth... http://freico.in/ http://freico.in/
  - wikiwaka 11y ago
    The unelected bureaucrats who hoard political power instead of wealth have happily destroyed people in many societies as well.
- m-i-l 11y ago
  > I really wish there was a resource that would collect pieces like this There was the The Memory Hole (web site) [0]. I remember an article by the Scottish Nationalist Party saying they would model an independent Scotland's economy on the then very successful Icelandic and Irish economies. That was in 2007. Then I read another article a couple of years later saying they would model it on the Norwegian economy. I tried to find the original article, but I suspect it may have disappeared down the memory hole. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Memory_Hole_(web_site) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Memory_Hole_(web_site)
- bko 11y ago
  > I really wish there was a resource that would collect pieces like this, meaning, journalism right before some large societal self-inflicted disaster (war, financial etc) where media and cultural hype helped blind everyone to impending catastrophe. When the idolizing puff journalism and self-congratulation of industry heads reach a deafening crescendo, it's time to brace yourself. Reminds me of Nassim Taleb's quote: "To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers." I try and do this once in a while to provide some historical perspective and introduce some skepticism in my thinking on current events
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
austenallred 11y ago
Fascinating. > Such concentration at the very top occurred in 1915 and 1916, as the Gilded Age was ending, and again briefly in the late 1920s, before the stock market crash. Now it is back. Quite literally, "Every time this has happened in the past there was a crash." Said without the least hint of irony or indication that anyone should worry.
m-i-l 11y ago
"Society should place an initial emphasis on abundance," Mr. Buffett argued, but "then should continuously strive" to redistribute the abundance more equitably. This is both succinct and extraordinarily perspicacious. I believe an ability to reconcile these two would solve so many problems in our current society. As it is now, we have a right wing focusing on wealth creation and inadvertently widening the gap between rich and poor, and a left wing focusing on wealth redistribution and inadvertently causing wealth destruction.
- adwhit 11y ago
  How odd, I see things completely differently. The Right focus on widening the gap between rich and poor and inadvertantly causing wealth destruction. The Left... there is no Left. But generally, when governments have focused on reducing inequalities and providing for everyone (in the US, this was the postwar era through to the late 70's, similarly in Europe), growth was strong - far stronger than it is now.
- mcv 11y ago
  I'm not so sure that the widening of the gap is inadvertent. There are a lot of subtle measures in the US that directly hurt the poor, even at the cost of wealth destruction.
wikiwaka 11y ago
I think there needs to be a balance between the two extremes. Wealth concentrated at the top serves some purpose, provides investment capital for new technologies and increases growth, but at the same time there needs to be less inequality. The issue is not black and white and I don't think society should shuffle back every few decades between high taxes and low taxes, but reconfigure the system for highest wealth creation as well as an appropriate amount of redistribution, perhaps through a yet untried way such as basic income.

48 points by siavosh 11y ago

OP here, just to add some context. I remember reading this piece back in 2007 when I lived in NYC and worked on software on Wall Street, and this line stuck with me: “I think this is a time of great prosperity and a time of great danger" ...which was in direct contrast to the self aggrandizing pride of the main character in the piece, Sanford I. Weill. Within a few a months, if I recall, almost everything he was defending and boasting of in the interview was proven to be a complete farce, delusion and some criminal, as the world neared another Great Depression. Large amounts of human suffering ensued (and still does) as a result of what happened. I really wish there was a resource that would collect pieces like this, meaning, journalism right before some large societal self-inflicted disaster (war, financial etc) where media and cultural hype helped blind everyone to impending catastrophe. When the idolizing puff journalism and self-congratulation of industry heads reach a deafening crescendo, it's time to brace yourself.

adwhit 11y ago
The tragedy, though, is because of the way the very rich are embedded at the very top of political and economic power structures, they got away scott-free and are now more powerful than ever [1]. Their wealth is pure rent-extraction and they will happily consume and destroy every person and resource on this planet before they voluntarily surrender a single cent ("nu-philanthropy" notwithstanding). These are complicated political problems that I think the tech community cannot solve on it's own (and possibly lacks the language to even discuss sensibly). [1] e.g. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/19/world-wealth-oxfam_n_6499798.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/19/world-wealth-oxfam_...
- maaku 11y ago
  Well there is some hope for a technical miracle in things like Freicoin. But very limited hope given the scale of the issue and the power of entrenched wealth... http://freico.in/ http://freico.in/
- wikiwaka 11y ago
  The unelected bureaucrats who hoard political power instead of wealth have happily destroyed people in many societies as well.
m-i-l 11y ago
> I really wish there was a resource that would collect pieces like this There was the The Memory Hole (web site) [0]. I remember an article by the Scottish Nationalist Party saying they would model an independent Scotland's economy on the then very successful Icelandic and Irish economies. That was in 2007. Then I read another article a couple of years later saying they would model it on the Norwegian economy. I tried to find the original article, but I suspect it may have disappeared down the memory hole. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Memory_Hole_(web_site) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Memory_Hole_(web_site)
bko 11y ago
> I really wish there was a resource that would collect pieces like this, meaning, journalism right before some large societal self-inflicted disaster (war, financial etc) where media and cultural hype helped blind everyone to impending catastrophe. When the idolizing puff journalism and self-congratulation of industry heads reach a deafening crescendo, it's time to brace yourself. Reminds me of Nassim Taleb's quote: "To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers." I try and do this once in a while to provide some historical perspective and introduce some skepticism in my thinking on current events
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

austenallred 11y ago

Fascinating. > Such concentration at the very top occurred in 1915 and 1916, as the Gilded Age was ending, and again briefly in the late 1920s, before the stock market crash. Now it is back. Quite literally, "Every time this has happened in the past there was a crash." Said without the least hint of irony or indication that anyone should worry.

m-i-l 11y ago

"Society should place an initial emphasis on abundance," Mr. Buffett argued, but "then should continuously strive" to redistribute the abundance more equitably. This is both succinct and extraordinarily perspicacious. I believe an ability to reconcile these two would solve so many problems in our current society. As it is now, we have a right wing focusing on wealth creation and inadvertently widening the gap between rich and poor, and a left wing focusing on wealth redistribution and inadvertently causing wealth destruction.

adwhit 11y ago
How odd, I see things completely differently. The Right focus on widening the gap between rich and poor and inadvertantly causing wealth destruction. The Left... there is no Left. But generally, when governments have focused on reducing inequalities and providing for everyone (in the US, this was the postwar era through to the late 70's, similarly in Europe), growth was strong - far stronger than it is now.
mcv 11y ago
I'm not so sure that the widening of the gap is inadvertent. There are a lot of subtle measures in the US that directly hurt the poor, even at the cost of wealth destruction.

wikiwaka 11y ago

I think there needs to be a balance between the two extremes. Wealth concentrated at the top serves some purpose, provides investment capital for new technologies and increases growth, but at the same time there needs to be less inequality. The issue is not black and white and I don't think society should shuffle back every few decades between high taxes and low taxes, but reconfigure the system for highest wealth creation as well as an appropriate amount of redistribution, perhaps through a yet untried way such as basic income.