Thomas Piketty, call your office!

Today's New York Times -- in the Fashion and Style section, but of course! -- reports on a White House meeting of "100 young philanthropists and heirs to billionaire family fortunes." Some of the people quoted in the article are as young as 19, and they are from family names you'll recognize: Marriott, Pritzker, Rockefeller, etc.

(via Krugman)

This article is also quoting Digby:

Hullabaloo

It's very nice that many of these young idealistic aristocrats want to do good deeds. But this is really nothing more than good old fashioned noblesse oblige which basically leaves the betterment of man to the whims of rich people. One of the big improvements democracy was supposed to bring was that the people themselves decided how to organize society rather than depending on the kindness of aristocrats. Even great philanthropists of the gilded age like Andrew Carnegie believed in a huge confiscatory tax of great estates in order that the government of the people might make the decisions rather than the heirs of great fortunes.

But we're going the wrong way again. So if you have a good idea or want to help people or just need a job --- figure out which of the wealthy young scions of the new aristocracy might be amenable to your needs and figure out a way to kiss their asses in exactly the way they like them kissed. That's the major skill we're all going to need in our so-called  "meritocracy".

And let's not forget Jerome's "Why I don't do charity".