To: E Rocc
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.
To: reformedliberal
Americas 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 countrys 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. Hes 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
48 posted on
04/01/2005 9:07:21 PM PST by
endthematrix
(Declare 2005 as the year the battle for freedom from tax slavery!)
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