Billionaire throws party on Long Island—other billionaires (and hangers-on) attend

[Donnachaidh]

http://wsws.org/articles/2011/aug2011/blac-a20.shtml

American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, in a short story, once famously noted that the very rich “are different from you and me.” In that same story, “The Rich Boy” (1926), Fitzgerald’s protagonist is made a partner in a brokerage firm in 1923 and earns $25,000 a year, or $325,000 in current dollars. Not a paltry sum, but hardly one that would put you in the category of the “very rich” these days, at least as the term is understood on Wall Street. The “very rich” today are a great deal more different “from you and me.”

On August 13, billionaire private equity investor Leon Black organized a 60th birthday party for himself at his estate in Southampton, on Long Island, that cost “millions of dollars,” according to an account at CNNMoney. Reportedly, pop singer Elton John, who gave an hour-and-a-half concert for the 200 guests, was alone paid $1 million for his services.

The attendees, reports the New York Times, included financier and “junk bond pioneer” Michael Milken (initially sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1990, he served 22 months)—he was Black’s boss at investment banking firm Drexel Burnham Lambert (which went bankrupt in 1990 in the junk bond scandal); Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs; “billionaire buyout titan” Stephen A. Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group; hedge fund manager and billionaire Julian Robertson; New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, also a billionaire; Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat from New York, and devoted friend of Wall Street; miscellaneous “celebrities,” including fashion designer Vera Wang, Martha Stewart and Howard Stern.

Mr. Black’s home, writes the Times, is “one of the Hamptons most desirable addresses for its panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean and Shinnecock Bay. He counts among his neighbors Calvin Klein and David H. Koch, the billionaire industrialist.”

More at the link --

[Cirque du So-What]

1. I can't help thinking about

the final days in the court of Louis XVI, most of whom probably felt immune to the travails of the 'little people' - not giving so much as a passing thought to their wrath.

[Amaril]

3. My thoughts were along the same lines

Being so blatantly conspicuous with one's wealth -- while so many around you are struggling - and a lot failing - just to get by is not only obscenely tacky, but it's also a really, really bad idea.

[malaise]

11. Just wait for that diamond Jubilee in England next year

and watch conspicuous

[pansypoo53219]

7. i have been re-reading french history in a 1891 encyclopedia britannica.

i have a 1903 edition i read 1st. i got to the beginning of the revoution a few weeks ago. louiz XVI is not dead yet. it reminds me so of the publikkklans and now. of course it wasn't all L XVI"S fault, but L XIV's. as this is georgee's fault.

[Shagbark Hickory]

8. That's ludacris.

They are immune.

[sammytko]

2. I grew up listenin to Elton John, but now why?

To me his music is so blah.. give me some AC/DC anytime!!

[Cirque du So-What]

5. There's no accounting for musical tastes

but 'Sir' Elton ended up on my ignore list when he allowed his services to be purchased by the likes of gasbag OxyRush Limbosevic at his latest sham marriage reception. 'Artistic integrity' goes a long way beyond just the ability to belt out a tune or play an instrument correctly, yunno. When it comes to earning my respect, a hundred Elton Johns wouldn't begin to compare with, say, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, or the hundreds of other artists who regularly perform for charity. By serving as plaything for these rich fucks, Elton John is no better than the courtesans in the aforementioned court of Louis Seize.

[MADem]

12. I hope he charged the fat bastard twice, no--three times--his going rate.

The guy has bills, and a right to earn a wage. If he's going to take money from an asshole, so what? It's not like Mindy Middleclass is going to hire him for her reception and be able to pay his going rate.

Celebrities don't owe me shit. I don't look to them to be examples or to "lead" me in any way. Thst kind of POV is why young girls nowadays think it's "cool" to be a whore like those Kardashian girls.

Mellencamp was the guy who said "Fuck, if I'd known how much I could get, I'd have done it a long time ago" in reference to selling his music as a backdrop for truck sales (Ain't That America). Willy has sold his music over and over again, to pay the tax man. No one is a saint, no one is a sinner. They just do what they must to keep themselves at the comfort level to which they've become accustomed.

And before you "dis" Sir Elton, you might want to do a little homework, so you have an idea just how MUCH the guy has given to charity over the years. He's no piker, not by a long shot:


very year the 61-year-old legend opens his house to hundreds of celebrities and invited guests for a themed “White Tie and Tiara” ball to raise money for the foundation, and also holds post-Grammy and -Oscar parties as fundraisers.

“I have lost many dear friends to this terrible disease,” he said on the EJAF website. “In the mid-1980s, I began channeling my grief into efforts to help raise money for the pioneering charitable organizations that formed during those dark, grim years to fund AIDS research and provide vital services to people with HIV/AIDS.”

Since its founding, EJAF has raised over $125 million to support programs in 55 countries around the globe through prevention and education, elimination of prejudice and discrimination, and providing services to people living with the disease.

The singer also gives large amounts of his personal wealth to charity. In 2004 he donated over $43 million to organizations around the world, making him the most generous person in music for that year – a title he retains year after year. Earlier this year he donated 120 motorcycles to the African nation of Lesotho, to be used by doctors and nurses to visit patients in remote areas, and in 1997 he raised $40 million for charity through sales of Candle In The Wind, the single released following the death of Princess Diana.

Read more: http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/62-elton-john#ixzz1VaQ3JxsZ

[jpak]

4. Tax the motherfuckers

yup

[Historic NY]

6. They must have been celebrating the tax deduction Black will take for entertainment.

[senseandsensibility]

9. Chuck Schumer was a guest?

That surprised me a little, but just a little. :(

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. Disgusting!

:puke:

Yeah, more tax cuts for these greedheads while seniors will be forced to live with cuts to SS/Medicare. :shrug:

What a disgusting mean greedy country this is.

[amborin]

13. "privatized profits....socialized losses"