Who is Peter Lewis? (Billionaire, Founder Progressive Insurance, Major ACLU Contributor)

Billionaires Peter Lewis and George Soros have each pledged $10 million to America Coming Together...A billionaire, Lewis is the chairman and chief executive officer of Progressive Corporation, the fourth-largest U.S. personal auto insurer, A leading U. S. business reference manual, Hoover's Handbook of American Business l999, actually described Lewis in print as "a functioning pot-head."... His house features an elaborate series of paintings of Chinese communist Mao Tse-tung by Andy Warhol. Lewis has contributed $5 million to the ACLU ...

Is is possible that the vast amount of funds available for the destruction of America as we know it is coming from the drug trade?

I don't know about Lewis, but it is true of Warren buffet in Omaha.

Progressive Insurance is a racket. Lewis figured out how to create a pool of people who had to have insurance because of laws requiring it and charge those bads risks high premiums. In 1994 I had a small accident on snow and bought a Cadillac soon thereafter. When State Farm cancelled me, my agent placed my policy with Progressive. They charged me $900/mo for me and my son. I had to change agents and business insurance to get better rates.

"Nobless Oblige" traditionally expects wealthy people to do philanthropy, but undue political contributions, instead, probably should not be allowed, even though it didn't seem to do much damage in 2004. Anyone who invests money in the hate-filled MoveOn.org is getting senile. Maybe he should be starved to death.(sarcasm)

Lewis inherited the base of his money. The Lewis fortune came from lumberyards and dry cleaning in Cincinnati, IIRC. His mother's trust is known as the Jewish Foundation of Greater Cleveland. All the heirs sit on the board. There are several brothers in Peter B's generation....3? I don't know for sure. The older generation controls the majority of the money, while their children's generation has several million each, but, of course, will eventually inherit the rest.

I knew one of his nieces-in-law. Fervent secularist and Green, anti-military and otherwise bored with the life her and her husband's money affords them.

They all hate all religions, including, interestingly enough, esoteric, new age cults. They do consider themselves superior, intellectually, and the ones I knew are part of the secularist left that tried to appropriate the term *brights*. They give away the money (but keep enough to own several homes each and all the trimmings, including $3k custom-designed toilets) because they are guilty over not earning it themselves. They are convinced no one can become as rich as they are without inside knowledge and connections and want to *provide* for the rest of us so we won't want to take away theirs. They do have a grudging respect for those who have earned their own way, especially if they are artists.

They hate Bush with passion, which is why I use the past tense in describing our relationship.

The trustfunders don't pay taxes at the rates we do, as their money isn't earned income.

The art is part of the superiority. Several of the 40-something generation are professional artists, not that bad (or good), but able to survive because they are rich and have connections. This grates on them.

Personally, I don't think any of Warhol's work is *art*. It is clever commercial illustration, IMO. Silkscreening publicly available portraits and product illustration in a variety of colorways is kitsch, not art. Warhol himself knew he was clever, but not really talented, and made fun of art critic pretensions.

The self-hatreds of the super wealthy aren't something you can figure out rationally. For example, Green Peter owns a converted tugboat that is his personal yacht. It burns 100s of gallons of diesel/hour and even shocks some of the rest of the family.

America’s 100 Largest Yachts - 2003

#5. (#25 in 2004) LONE RANGER • L: 255'0" Y: 1972/1994 Work hard, play hard: That seems to be the philosophy embraced by Peter Lewis. The former CEO of Progressive, one of the country’s largest auto insurers, Lewis has described himself as being “half screwball, half businessman.” The screwball part fits when you discover he dressed up as the Lone Ranger (the TV character, not the yacht) for a meeting with a powerful politician several years ago; but then again, the day was Halloween. Besides his office antics, Lewis is passionate about art and cruising. He’s been aboard Lone Ranger (the yacht, not the TV character) in various locations around the world, including Whangaroa Harbour, New Zealand; the yacht was seen in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, this summer. B: Schichau-Unterwesser, Germany; N: Claus Kusch (conversion); H: Steel; E: 2/4,400-hp Deutz-MWMs

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