I will never for the rest of my life forget when the grandson of the founder of Motorola came up to me in high school and said "How does it feel?" and I said, "Excuse me?" And he said "How does it feel to know you worked so hard and finished at the top of our class but I'm the one going to Harvard?"
(also I did great for myself, especially with the immense privilege of the property taxes my parents were able to pay that allowed me to go to one of the most elite public schools in the country, but also we were not of generational wealth like so many other families and you saw who Harvard was for)
Also I guess I owe a mea culpa because in this story about this kid-now-"adult" selling his $7M, 9,700-square foot mansion, it says his *great* grandfather founded Motorola, though his grandfather and father both took turns as CEOs. He really branched out and started his own PE firm.
He didn’t. He was creating action-movie-style banter because he wanted to be perceived as awesomely epic.
He probably walked away in slow motion, waiting for people to clap.
He's not even the good guy in that exchange! In no movie would the protagonist say that to someone unless it were before their redemption arc! Ah well.
Without a confiscatory estate tax, how could a meritocracy not turn into aristocracy by the second generation?
Fukuyama was right that people will always advantage their children if possible, and a state is successful to the extent that it can prevent (harness?) that.
Estate tax merits aside, wealth’s advantages are passed on to the next generation well before death. E.g., Elon Musk’s father is very much alive.
A tax system that makes it near-impossible to accumulate large fortunes is more important IMO.
It’s been a bummer to hear Scott Galloway (copying his boss @karaswisher.bsky.social) dive headfirst into the anti-DEI higher ed dialogue with the precision of a dull spoon, aka the Maher method of rant about something based on observations until it’s true.
Chris?
When he got to Motorola he drove out many excellent executives by pointing out that, however good they were, someday he’d be their boss.
I wrote a critical story, & he had to be stopped from sending a letter saying he still had the job for life.
The company no longer exists.
I see now it was Chris’ kid. Believe it or not, the grandad was a pretty good guy. I’m told he kept a Monet in his private jet, but it was a tasteful one.
“In this Massachusetts university town, students could rely on generational wealth and access to networks of privilege to bootstrap their careers. But now the woke mob is taking it all away”
The irony of some people from old money thinking themselves self-made men (or women, I suppose, but it’s mostly men) and looking down at anything resembling a handout to gen pop is absolutely palpable
I wonder how it feels to live a life knowing that you're deeply mediocre and you'll never actually earn a single thing on your own merits and that you can't really even trust that your closest loved ones actually care about you outside of your wealth and privilege. Someone should ask him!
The valedictorian in the class ahead of mine went to harvard after scoring 1600 twice on the SATs. So my class valedictorian applied to harvard and when she had an interview, the guy told her "I would never recommend someone from your school." ouch
Insane, right? he actually got one wrong on the first try; but argued that he was correct and that was accepted. But he took it again to prove it wasn't a fluke.
That’s nuts. I had the highest SAT score in my class. (I am an extremely good standardized test taker, but I don’t think it means anything else).
A friend who got something like 1530 really wanted to beat me, so he took it again. And scored worse. All because he wanted to beat me!
If they're in their mid-30s, they would have been around when the College Board was phasing out the 1600 score for the 2400 score, which also changed the verbal section significantly.
Having a ton of money makes people act like they have a brain injury, because there are zero consequences for nearly any action they can take and the few exceptions are things they think they can pay someone to clear up for them.
I truly think the later generations of huge wealth can develop titanic insecurities over their worth and merit. And no real way to reconcile what their actual merit is
Translation: If the smartest person in my class is not going to Harvard and I am… uh, maybe Harvard only wants my money, not me. Oh god, does EVERYONE just want — / Hard reboot chime, followed by lifetime of projection & self loathing
