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Tom Perkins, Defender of the 1% Once Again - NYTimes.com

February 14, 2014, 11:32 am

Tom Perkins, Defender of the 1% Once Again

By DAVID STREITFELD

Like many semifamous people, Tom Perkins has publicly wondered how he will be remembered. As the venture capitalist who helped start Silicon Valley? As the extremely rich guy who built the most awesome sailing yacht of the era? Or even although this is a long shot as the author of the supremely trashy novel Sex and the Single Zillionaire? Well, how about as the champion of Americas newest oppressed minority, the beleaguered billionaires of Silicon Valley? Mr. Perkins came Thursday night to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco to defend the tech elite against the forces that would bring them down. His appearance was titled The War on the 1 Percent. Three police officers stood watch, just in case the crowd decided to take the battle into its own hands.

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Tom Perkins, Defender of the 1% Once Again - NYTimes.com

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The police look ready for the Tom Perkins' "War on the 1%" talk at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club
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The 82-year-old venture capitalist, whose ex-wife, the novelist Danielle Steel, was also at the event, was prepared with a list of villains: Bloated government entitlements. Teachers unions. The War on Poverty. President Obama and ObamaCare. High taxes. And old-fashioned jealousy. Leave the tech companies alone, he insisted. Activists should not block their commuter shuttles or expect anything from them. Google may be able to cheat death at least, it is funding a venture with that goal but inequality is beyond it. We started Google, Mr. Perkins said, a reference to Kleiner Perkins

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Tom Perkins, Defender of the 1% Once Again - NYTimes.com

being an early backer of the search company. If they want buses, fine with me. Is Google responsible for the rising rents in San Francisco? Indirectly, yes. What can they do about it? Nothing. He later returned to the company during a brief press conference. The founders of Google have made so much money he said, I think theres an envy. His advice for Google: You just ignore the protesters. Which is pretty much what Google is doing. (The protesters were city residents who were annoyed that tech companies were using city bus stops for their buses; the city and the companies have since agreed to a small fee.) The hurriedly arranged event was sold out, which was not true of forthcoming appearances by Sen. Barbara Boxer, His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco or even Amy Chua, the Tiger Mom. Politics, royalty and how to raise kids might be big draws elsewhere, but in the Bay Area the tech community has a way of sucking the air out of all other topics. Particularly now. There is a mood of rising dissent against Silicon Valley, whose workers are blamed for making San Francisco unaffordable for everyone else. Mr. Perkins first came to widespread attention a few weeks ago by comparing anti-tech demonstrators to Nazis. We might be heading, he said, to a new Kristallnacht, when Hitler Youth and stormtroopers were unleashed against Jews and their businesses. He quickly disavowed the analogy, but not the reasoning behind it. In other words, he did not mean that protesters would be literally beating up everyone wearing Google Glass and carting off Larry Page and Sergey Brin to internment camps. Just that they would like to. Im not sorry I did it, he said Thursday night. For one thing, he noted, it got everyones attention.

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Tom Perkins, Defender of the 1% Once Again - NYTimes.com

Mr. Perkins interlocutor, Adam Lashinsky, soon had the frustrated look of a man trying to swim in a vat of molasses. Mr. Lashinsky pointed out, for instance, that it was ridiculous to equate powerless Jews in the Third Reich with extremely powerful tech overlords in present-day America. No, I think the parallel holds, Mr. Perkins said calmly. For one thing, If you pay 75 percent of your lifes earnings to the government you are being persecuted. He had a better plan: You dont get to vote unless you pay a dollar in taxes. later he added, A million in taxes, you get a million votes. He said he was kidding about that last part, kind of. But he was serious that things started to go wrong 50 years ago with President Johnsons War on Poverty, which somehow led to the teachers going out of control. He said that in the entire country last year, only 14 teachers were fired for incompetence. (For Mr. Perkins views on taxes, follow this link to DealBook, ) Demonstrators do not need to storm the gates of Silicon Valley. With spokesmen like Mr. Perkins, the tech community will alienate the entire country in no time.

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