The Silicon Valley doyen Tom Perkins drew no small amount of criticism for drawing parallels between attacks on San Francisco’s wealthy class and Kristallnacht, a comparison for which he has since sort of apologized.
But another investment mogul thinks that his fellow 1-percenter was right: Samuel Zell, the real estate veteran whom Forbes estimates is worth $4 billion.
Here’s what Mr. Zell told Bloomberg Television’s Betty Liu on Wednesday (the comments start around 2:45):
I guess my feeling is that he’s right. The 1 percent are being pummeled because it’s politically convenient to do so. The problem is that the world and this country should not talk about envy of the 1 percent. It should talk about emulating the 1 percent. The 1 percent work harder. The 1 percent are much bigger factors in all forms of our society.
Though he said he didn’t feel “persecuted†for his wealth, Mr. Zell espoused his belief that class warfare was hurting the American economy. A longtime donor to conservative causes, he blamed overreaching government regulations for exacerbating a gulf between society’s richest and everyone else.
That’s in line with what Mr. Perkins said. Though he regretted using the comparison to Nazi Germany, the legendary venture capitalist insisted that sniping against the top economic ranks of the country was real and wrong.
“It’s absurd to demonize the rich for being rich and doing what the rich do, which is get richer by creating opportunities for others,†Mr. Perkins told Bloomberg Television last week.
