Repugnant as the task may be, it's necessary to fill in the general public on the travails of Tom Perkins, co-founder of venerable venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Perkins had the unmitigated gall – OK, inexplicable ignorance – to compare the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany with the Occupy Movement and recent anti-gentrification protests against the tech industry here.
In a letter to the Wall Street Journal this weekend, Perkins used the term kristallnacht to describe what's happening to the nation's 1%. "This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking," Perkins wrote. "Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent 'progressive' radicalism unthinkable now?"
Kristallnacht ("night of broken glass") refers to a notorious incident in 1938, when Nazis killed at least 91 Jewish people and arrested 30,000.
The immediate blowback to Perkins was harsh – VC Marc Andreessen tweeted, "I wish to express my extreme displeasure with Tom Perkins. His positions just go to prove that he is the leading [a%()&#e] in the state." Perkins apologized to the Anti-Defamation League and on Bloomberg TV.
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"It was a terrible word to have chosen. I, like many, have tried to understand the 20th Century and the incomprehensible evil of the Holocaust," Perkins said in a TV interview on Monday. "It can't be explained. Even to try to explain it is questionable. It's wrong. It's evil."
The public meltdown of Perkins is unfortunate and sad. He arguably helped build Silicon Valley and has been a generous, friendly source over the years.
But his misguided letter highlights what many perceive as a self-entitled, boorish attitude among the affluent in tech and in other i! ndustries. That viewpoint has stoked a swell of resentment here toward tech companies that enjoy the benefits of the city (read: tax breaks and sweetheart land deals) while turning a blind eye toward an alarming rise in monthly rental costs and evictions. Amid grand, percolating wealth, San Francisco struggles with services for the homeless, child care and public education.
A vocal few, like Salesforce.com Marc Benioff, are attempting to bridge the sides.
The bubble in which Perkins resides isn't new, but it is expanding. The disparity of wealth isn't just alarming in Silicon Valley: The 85 richest people have as much wealth as half the world's population, according to a report out of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.
What's happening in San Francisco is a microcosm of a bigger issue. Perhaps in the ghastly aftermath of the Perkins affair, we should thank him for shining klieg lights on a problem that is often overlooked but begs for attention.
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