It's even worse than it appears.
Saturday September 5, 2020; 9:28 AM EDT
How the super-rich think#
  • Many years ago at a tech conference in Arizona, I was seated next to a billionaire. He had started a shoe company, very successful, sold it. I tried to have a conversation, but he mostly ignored me. He said something I remembered. You can't get by on less than $20 million a year. I looked to see if he was joking. He wasn't. I said you know that's not true. I live quite well, but I don't even spend $1 million a year (an understatement, I probably didn't spend $100K a year). I said there are lots of people who get by on $30K a year (it was a long time ago). He didn't say another word the whole meal.#
  • All that ignorance because he made shoes a lot of people liked. Shoes. I've seen it many times. Vast wealth doesn't make people smarter, though a lot of people including the super-rich think it does. It actually makes you stupider.#
  • A guy like Trump has no idea what it means to be president. Yet for some reason he decided that's what he wants to be. And he is. And he probably doesn't understand why people are so upset with what he said about suckers and losers.#
  • I could imagine one of my roommates at UW-Madison saying something like what Trump said in the 70s. But a president not only can't, but a president can't even think it. A president has to send people to their deaths. That's a very big responsibility.#
  • A person who truly believes what Trump does can not be president. We could argue about it in a bar on E Johnson St in Madison, but he doesn't get to be undecided on that.#

© 1994-2020 Dave Winer.

Last update: Saturday September 5, 2020; 5:31 PM EDT.

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