Unlike the grandees of Wall Street or the energy industry, the tech Oligarchs have so far experienced relatively little of the criticism commonly directed at Wall Street or energy executives for their huge compensation levels. They, it appears, are different even than the other rich. Whereas the wealthy on Wall Street and elsewhere are viewed as illegitimate and greedy, the tech moguls have managed to retain an aura of earned success and enjoy almost universal admiration.

“We live in a bubble, and I don’t mean a tech bubble or a valuation bubble. I mean a bubble as in our own little world,” Google’s Schmidt boasted in 2011 to Bloomberg Businessweek . “And what a world it is. Companies can’t hire people fast enough. Young people can work hard and make a fortune. Homes hold their value. Occupy Wall Street isn’t really something that comes up in a daily discussion, because their issues are not our daily reality.”

from The New Class Conflict by Joel Kotkin

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