Quote: Venture capitalist Tom Perkins compared liberals' push to reduce inequality in the United States to Nazi Germany's war on Jews.

In a letter to the editor published in The Wall Street Journal Perkins, a founding member of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, asks whether a "progressive Kristallnacht" is coming. Perkins's letter is in response to an editorial on speech codes at American colleges.

"Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich," Perkins wrote in the letter to the editor.

He continued that he perceives "a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent. There is outraged public reaction to the Google buses carrying technology workers from the city to the peninsula high-tech companies which employ them."

Perkins cites outrage over real-estate prices as an example of overblown liberal outrage.
"This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent "progressive" radicalism unthinkable now?" Perkins concluded in the letter.

Perkins is listed as a partner emeritus on the Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers website.
This post was updated.


Read the full letter to the editor below:

Regarding your editorial "Censors on Campus" (Jan. 18): Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich." From the Occupy movement to the demonization of the rich embedded in virtually every word of our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent. There is outraged public reaction to the Google buses carrying technology workers from the city to the peninsula high-tech companies which employ them. We have outrage over the rising real-estate prices which these "techno geeks" can pay. We have, for example, libelous and cruel attacks in the Chronicle on our number-one celebrity, the author Danielle Steel, alleging that she is a "snob" despite the millions she has spent on our city's homeless and mentally ill over the past decades.

This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent "progressive" radicalism unthinkable now?

Tom Perkins
San Francisco
Mr. Perkins is a founder of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Quote:...Put it all together and you get the climate in which someone like Perkins writes something as ridiculous as he did. As I said up top, his Holocaust analogy is so hyperbolic and ridiculous that he's getting dumped on by almost everyone. But we miss the point if we see this in isolation or just the rant of one out-of-touch douchebag. It is pervasive. The disconnect between perception and reality, among such a powerful segment of the population, is in itself dangerous. And it's led to what I would call a significant radicalization of the politics of extreme wealth. My evidence for this is only anecdotal. But it's come up in conversations I've had with many business reporters who cover these folks on a daily basis.


We take it more or less rightly as a given that people in finance will have generally right-leaning politics - low taxes, tight money, lax regulatory regimes. Basically traditional money Republicanism. But over the last few years (since 2008), I think there's been a pretty dramatic growth in what we'd call Tea Party politics in that set - extreme conservatism that goes beyond hands off fiscal and regulatory policy, the kind of feverish mindset in which you could write with a straight face that progressives might be building toward some sort of mass wealth confiscation or internment or even extermination for the likes of Tom Perkins.

Quote:This will be a very simple post. Most of the press blew the Tom Perkins story, whose moral can be summed up in one sentence:

The rich are different. They have class interests, they know it, and they act on them.

Tom Perkins, the expensively accessorized Silicon Valley venture capitalist, in the follow-up interview on his now famous but-for-all-the-wrong reasons letter, explains:

[PERKINS:] I don't feel personally threatened, but I think a very important part of America, the creative 1 percent, are threatened. I think [the] rich as a class are threatened by higher taxes and higher regulation

So there you have it; Perkins transgressed the unwritten law: You never talk about class in America, because that would be "class warfare."

Lauren Johnson Wrote:Lambert Strether at Naked Capitalism says Kristalnacht Guy broke an unwritten law.

Quote:This will be a very simple post. Most of the press blew the Tom Perkins story, whose moral can be summed up in one sentence:

The rich are different. They have class interests, they know it, and they act on them.

Tom Perkins, the expensively accessorized Silicon Valley venture capitalist, in the follow-up interview on his now famous but-for-all-the-wrong reasons letter, explains:

[PERKINS:] I don't feel personally threatened, but I think a very important part of America, the creative 1 percent, are threatened. I think [the] rich as a class are threatened by higher taxes and higher regulation

So there you have it; Perkins transgressed the unwritten law: You never talk about class in America, because that would be "class warfare."

Go here to see Kristalnacht Guy's watch retailing for only $380,000. But hey, some of those watches go for over $2 million.

David Guyatt Wrote:

Lauren Johnson Wrote:Lambert Strether at Naked Capitalism says Kristalnacht Guy broke an unwritten law.

Quote:This will be a very simple post. Most of the press blew the Tom Perkins story, whose moral can be summed up in one sentence:

The rich are different. They have class interests, they know it, and they act on them.

Tom Perkins, the expensively accessorized Silicon Valley venture capitalist, in the follow-up interview on his now famous but-for-all-the-wrong reasons letter, explains:

[PERKINS:] I don't feel personally threatened, but I think a very important part of America, the creative 1 percent, are threatened. I think [the] rich as a class are threatened by higher taxes and higher regulation

So there you have it; Perkins transgressed the unwritten law: You never talk about class in America, because that would be "class warfare."

Go here to see Kristalnacht Guy's watch retailing for only $380,000. But hey, some of those watches go for over $2 million.

The link didn't take me to a watch price Lauren? But I take your point. For these guys, time really IS money...

Albert Doyle Wrote:America's neo-right has an annoying habit of blaming others for what they are guilty of. Bush wages outright military national socialism that even the Germans say is right out of Hitler's play book and Obama takes the rap for being a Nazi. And JFK was labeled a pro-Viet Nam war hawk etc. Those poor victims who looted the middle class...

Quote:It's socialism that creates, you know, scarcity, that creates famine. In a free market, there's plenty of food for everybody especially the poor.

Quote:"There's a law in economics, supply and demand, that you learn in Econ 101, and if you increase the price of something, you decrease the demand,"