Why hedge fund tycoons are so horrible

by Ed Bowsher on 10 September 2010  |  0 comments
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Find out why the ultra-rich are selfish and snobby.

You might imagine that the rich have always been pretty unpleasant but I've just come across a new theory that suggests that the 21st century fat cat are worse than their predecessors.

I got the idea from an excellent column by Matthew Lynn on Bloomberg. Here's the nub of it:

"In the past, most fortunes were built in association with ordinary people. Factory owners were aware of the shop-floor workers on whom their wealth depended, and that shaped the view of themselves. Carmaker Henry Ford doubled his workers' average pay to $5 a day in 1913 and shortened their working hours.........

"The growth of the financial-services industry and the bonus culture has changed that. The investment bankers and hedge-fund managers who make up the most of the new rich elite don't have much contact with ordinary people. They assume their wealth is entirely the result of their own brilliance. And they cut themselves off from normal life."

Having met a fair few City types over the years I think there's a lot of truth in this. And I haven't even met the top guns. Anyway, go and read the whole column. It deserves some attention.

More:  This speech is well worth reading