Everyone has an opinion about Cecil the Lion, including me.
when I first moved to San Francisco, I had a roommate who said his name was Robin Hood Dial III. His family was old money from Columbia, South Carolina. He was my first encounter with the way people who grew up with money think, and it was quite an eye opener. The first thing that made me realize what he was like is walking in on him killing an endangered San Francisco garter snake in a jar of alcohol.
I asked him where he found that, and he said he found it in Golden Gate Park. This is pretty unlikely but not impossible for a San Francisco garter snake, but I could tell from the color that was what it was. My knowledge of San Francisco trivia made me realize instantly that what he was doing made him liable for a fine and jail time. The internet tells me $20,000 and a year in prison, which I didn't know at the time. I told him so (not the exact amount though) and he grinned at me and said "I'll pay that fine, I can get a good lawyer."
Well, that was my first recognition that he was a horrible person. As I discovered more about him (he's actually a junior, not the third with that name), I discovered a lot more. He moved back to South Carolina for what was important for him - his family's money. Subsequently I've noticed the same trend amongst people who I've met here in San Francisco who grew up with money and are used to living off trust funds - everything, even a life, can be equated to money. Suspension of morals is fine as long as you have the money to pay the fines, pay the lawyers, and pay off people to not make a stink. In their world, you can pay $20,000 for a garter snake, or $50,000 for a lion. I have so many stories of people like this from my time here in San Francisco, from a pot dealer investment banker to the lawyer who got busted with a kilo of cocaine.
Most of the companies that are described as "unicorns" in Silicon Valley (valued at over $1 billion) were started by people like this. CEOs who were born into money and attach a dollar value to everything build companies that flagrantly exploit the old world rules that cannot keep up with the technological tide. How many of them are tangled up in legal battles? It makes sense that the problems they have are related to the non-existent morals of their rich founders.
This is a LARGE part of what's wrong with the startup culture here, and with society in general. Just because a person was born with money doesn't mean they are a good person - and they generally aren't. One of my former bosses famously dropped out of Harvard after he decided his ethics class was, in his words, "bullshit". He's currently dealing with a class action lawsuit regarding his unethical deal to cash out of his company's IPO early.
Again, so many stories like this.
If there's one thing about San Francisco I love, it's the ability it has to make you despise the rich. Here's hoping the Internet can do the same for all of you, with more stories about things like rich dentists and dead lions.
I asked him where he found that, and he said he found it in Golden Gate Park. This is pretty unlikely but not impossible for a San Francisco garter snake, but I could tell from the color that was what it was. My knowledge of San Francisco trivia made me realize instantly that what he was doing made him liable for a fine and jail time. The internet tells me $20,000 and a year in prison, which I didn't know at the time. I told him so (not the exact amount though) and he grinned at me and said "I'll pay that fine, I can get a good lawyer."
Well, that was my first recognition that he was a horrible person. As I discovered more about him (he's actually a junior, not the third with that name), I discovered a lot more. He moved back to South Carolina for what was important for him - his family's money. Subsequently I've noticed the same trend amongst people who I've met here in San Francisco who grew up with money and are used to living off trust funds - everything, even a life, can be equated to money. Suspension of morals is fine as long as you have the money to pay the fines, pay the lawyers, and pay off people to not make a stink. In their world, you can pay $20,000 for a garter snake, or $50,000 for a lion. I have so many stories of people like this from my time here in San Francisco, from a pot dealer investment banker to the lawyer who got busted with a kilo of cocaine.
Most of the companies that are described as "unicorns" in Silicon Valley (valued at over $1 billion) were started by people like this. CEOs who were born into money and attach a dollar value to everything build companies that flagrantly exploit the old world rules that cannot keep up with the technological tide. How many of them are tangled up in legal battles? It makes sense that the problems they have are related to the non-existent morals of their rich founders.
This is a LARGE part of what's wrong with the startup culture here, and with society in general. Just because a person was born with money doesn't mean they are a good person - and they generally aren't. One of my former bosses famously dropped out of Harvard after he decided his ethics class was, in his words, "bullshit". He's currently dealing with a class action lawsuit regarding his unethical deal to cash out of his company's IPO early.
Again, so many stories like this.
If there's one thing about San Francisco I love, it's the ability it has to make you despise the rich. Here's hoping the Internet can do the same for all of you, with more stories about things like rich dentists and dead lions.