How rich people die

As reported by Reuters:

Money manager B. Robert Williamson Jr., the nephew of Wall Street investment guru Julian Robertson, was found dead on Sunday in North Carolina, in water surrounding an island.

Williamson, who was 55, was managing director and portfolio manager of hedged U.S. equities strategy at Chilton Investment Co in Stamford, Connecticut. He joined the firm in January 2011.

He was staying with family members at a house on Figure Eight Island, a gated development on a barrier island near Wilmington.

Williamson was reported missing Sunday morning after he did not return from a party Saturday night that took place at another location on the island, less than a mile from the house, according to New Hanover County Sheriff Deputy Jason Augst.

After a search that included a helicopter and a dive team, Williamson's car was discovered underwater off a boat ramp. Authorities do not suspect foul play, Augst said.

Figure Eight Island is a private island with a gated causeway, which means that only people who belong there can even get onto the Island. Most of the 441 houses are oceanfront with their own private beach.

Mr. Williamson must have been pretty drunk if he drove his car into the ocean.

This article also demonstrates that the best way to become a rich money manager is to have an older relative who’s a rich money manager.

Some web research shows that Williamson has been actively involved in giving his family fortune away to poor black people. As I’ve written before, philanthropy is entertainment for rich people.

* * *

A first-time commenter writes:

You horrible person for writing about Rob Williamson this way. He was a wonderful man, loving husband, leaves behind three teenaged children, and he gave much back to the community. The amount of money in his bank account, or in his family's bank accounts is irrelevant.

You should be ashamed for be so flippant and snarky, and for speaking ill of the dead.

Just curious: How much money do you give to charity?

Charity is a hobby and a competition for rich people and not something they do for purely altruistic purposes. And it’s really easy to give a $100 million to charity when you have $200 million. I don’t see why anyone who can’t afford to send their children to a quality private school should be giving money to charity at all. However, I do plan to give some money to the George Zimmerman defense fund once Mark O'Mara provides an official means of doing so.

I provide the community with this blog, which requires a considerable amount of my resources, and does a lot more good for this country than giving a few dollars to some kids in the ghetto.

Comments

[Conquistador]

Never hear of Figure Eight Island but it sounds similar to Pebble Beach here in California. Non-residents have to pay a toll to take a scenic 17 mile drive passing by oceanfront mansions.

[not too late]

How poor whites die:

Video: Matthew Owens Beaten by Black Mob Saying “That's Justice for Trayvon"

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/crime/video-matthew-owens-beaten-black-mob-saying-“thats-justice-trayvon?utm_source=OV+Newsletter+List+2&utm_campaign=90fddfba0d-OV_Daily_Newsletter4_24_2012&utm_medium=email

[Camlost]

As a North-South running island on the NC coast, it is VERY exposed to a hurricane direct hit.

One good cat 4 and that sucker might be underwater permanently, returning to a series of small marshy sand bars. As a private island I don't think the Army Corps of Engineers would clear its roads in the event of a washover, and it also appears their beaches aren't bolstered with extra CoE sand.

[dearieme]

Silly bastard: if it's only a mile why the hell was he driving? Is Shank's Pony too much like hard work?

[Wencil Jones]

Half Sigma,
thanks for posting this.

I would point out that Figure Eight Island is well known for being restricted, ie for having only Christians as home owners.

The anti semites that post at Mangans like to say that there are no desirable enclaves left where they can be free from people that they don't like to associate with.

If you study Figure Eight Island a little you will note that it is quite a nice place, and that no one has forced the Island to accept non Christian home owners

[HS: Research shows this comment to be completely false. Frederick T. Block is Jewish and a director of the Figure Eight homeowners association.

Maurice (Chico) Sabbah, Jewish, also owns property there.]

[Turambar]

How about Huguette Clark? She checked herself into a hospital even though she wasnt sick and lived to 102.

[Fetzen]

Half, some unseen pictures of New York City in the 1910s: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134408/Never-seen-photos-100-years-ago-tell-vivid-story-gritty-New-York-City.html

It was poor, dirty and unequal (a nightmare for a bleeding-heart liberal), but that was, in my opinion, what made it great. You can sense it was a time of real opportunity, where hard work, intelligence and talent were rewarded, rather than conformity and looks. You can see happy faces everywhere, today try seeing a genuinely happy smile in the street. All people look busy and pissed off.

If I could time travel back to this epoch, I would open a bank or start a newspaper (today, there are too many barriers to entry).

[Ed]

There is quite a bit of behavior the high and the low have in common, which you are less likely to find in the middle class.

Drugs are an example. The cost of drugs comes in the up front cost (not really that much, they are really cheap entertainment), and then the back end cost of dealing with all the trouble you get into due to the drugs. Poor people can afford to not worry about the back end because they have nothing to lose. Rich people can pay their way out of any back end costs. Its really middle class people that get ruined by drug use, so they are much less likely to indulge in it.

Ironically, suicide also falls into this category. Poor people have nothing to lose. Wealthy, well connected people are more likely to get themselves into a legal/ ethical mess where suicide seems to be the only way out. A wealthy person can arrange an "accident" associated with one of the dangerous hobbies they were associated with.

Charles Murray resurfaced recently with some nonsense that the reason poor people were poor was their lack of solid bourgeouis virtues, eg they are prone to doing drugs, getting into fights, sleeping around, stealing, etc. But the wealthy have more in common with the poor than with the middle class in this respect.

[Camlost]

"If you study Figure Eight Island a little you will note that it is quite a nice place, and that no one has forced the Island to accept non Christian home owners

I would point out that Figure Eight Island is well known for being restricted, ie for having only Christians as home owners. "

The fact that there are no Jews in rural Southeastern NC hasn't prevented the SPLC from identifying 125+ different instances of anti-Semitic activity in the Figure 8 Island area in the years 2000-2011.

[Firepower]

This perfumed inherit-it-all Fortunate Son was lucky he didn't die in a Figure 69 Island hot tub - surrounded by Puerto Rican rent boys.

But, the research on how all his predecessors passed peacefully at a Bohemian Grove Quonset hut equipped with Walnut paneling WOULD be entertaining.

[icr]

"I would point out that Figure Eight Island is well known for being restricted, ie for having only Christians as home owners. "

A really incredible number of lefties seem convinced that nothing has changed since 1965. Of course that explains a lot about the MSM narrative of the Trayvon-Zimmerman Affair.

[Some Guy]

Poor people get drunk and crash their car into the irrigation ditch, then drown.

Rich people get drunk and crash their car into the channel by their private island, and their mistress dies, and they go on to be senator-for-life... or something like that.

[Half Canadian]

Ed,

If you read "The Millionaire Next Door", you'd find that the wealthy aren't more likely to indulge then the middle class.
It's more likely that the 2nd/3rd generation do this than the nouvea (sic) rich.

[Peter]

So Bobby lived on a gated private island so he didn't have to worry about being attacked by Negroes, but he drives his car into the water and drowns.

[eggwhite]

This is how White Gentiles spend their fortunes. They fritter them away on giant yachts or useless causes, instead of helping their own people. Apparently there is no prestige in helping White folks.

[Insider]

'If I could time travel back to this epoch, I would open a bank or start a newspaper (today, there are too many barriers to entry)'

Imagine your surprise when you get there and discover all of those same barriers on the wrong side of the law.

[nebbish]

@ Camlost,

Figure 8 Island is very close to Wilmington, NC. A small number of Jews live in or around that small city.

[Fetzen]

"Imagine your surprise when you get there and discover all of those same barriers on the wrong side of the law."

What do you mean?

[The Undiscovered Jew]

"How rich people die"

...

"Figure Eight Island is a private island with a gated causeway, which means that only people who belong there can even get onto the Island. Most of the 441 houses are oceanfront with their own private beach."

What the hell is wrong with you?

[Ode]

What do you mean?

Posted by: Fetzen | April 24, 2012 at 11:00 PM

I think what Insider is trying to claim is that the barriers to entry to opening up a small business was just as bad back then as today, but the only difference is back then you paid the mafia where as today you pay expensive lawyer fees. Well I flat out disagree. Obviously it was easier to open up a business back in the days because it took less capital. Forget about the 1880's, hell even as late as the 1980's a frugal person with 10 years worth of money saved up could of opened up a small business like a grocery store, gas station, or electronics store. I know this for a fact because I lived through the 80's and some of my parents friends actually got rich off going that route. But In today's world where your competition is going to be big box stores like Best buy, Walmart, and Home depot forget about it! Sometimes Even being big is no guarantee, yes a big box store or an entire shopping mall can also go out of business so what chance does a mom and pop shop have?

[destructure]

"Mr. Williamson must have been pretty drunk if he drove his car into the ocean."

Or perhaps he had a heart attack? I have no idea. I'm just saying that drunk isn't the only option.

[TBD]

You horrible person for writing about Rob Williamson this way. He was a wonderful man, loving husband, leaves behind three teenaged children, and he gave much back to the community. The amount of money in his bank account, or in his family's bank accounts is irrelevant.

You should be ashamed for be so flippant and snarky, and for speaking ill of the dead.

Just curious: How much money do you give to charity?

[Dan]

Ed said

"Charles Murray resurfaced recently with some nonsense that the reason poor people were poor was their lack of solid bourgeouis virtues, eg they are prone to doing drugs, getting into fights, sleeping around, stealing, etc. But the wealthy have more in common with the poor than with the middle class in this respect."

Evidence? I see no evidence that the wealthy are a bunch of druggies. Charles Murry's nonsense was at least backed up with a lot of data. You got some?

[The Undiscovered Jew]

Sigma, instead of railing against the rich, could you instead do something useful and start posting about student loan debt?

Now is a great time to use the student loan debt crisis as an excuse to start defunding the liberal arts departments.

What about :

1) Federal price control mandates requiring colleges to cut tuition costs as a prerequisite for receiving governments funds (80% of all student loans are federal).

2) 60 credit degrees that have no gened requirements.

3) Making both federal and private student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy court.

4) Making colleges cosigners to student debt.

[rjp]

Another possibility: The Ghost of Teddy Kennedy was driving.

I love this:

Tiger Foundation: What we look for .......

I can't find a picture of a white person anywhere on the site anywhere.

[The Undiscovered Jew]

Btw, I especially like the idea of the feds slapping American colleges with price controls because the left is always trying to regulate every sector of the economy in the name of making goods more "affordable" for the poor.

[not too late]

"I provide the community with this blog, which requires a considerable amount of my resources, and does a lot more good for this country than giving a few dollars to some kids in the ghetto."

well said.

any money "given" to some kids in the ghetto really goes to liberal foot soldiers who feel self righteous for wasting their time with them.

[WRB]

"Now is a great time to use the student loan debt crisis as an excuse to start defunding the liberal arts departments."

Link funding of departments to the default rate of their graduates.

[Ian]

"I provide the community with this blog, which requires a considerable amount of my resources, and does a lot more good for this country than giving a few dollars to some kids in the ghetto."

BOOM. Owned.

[Matt in RTP]

He was an alumnus of Ravenscroft, a very expensive private school about ten minutes from me. Apparently, he was also quite an athlete:

http://www.ravenscroft.org/page.cfm?p=478&pback=479

So, it is good that private schools encourage kids to play sports. They really do build character. In many large (2,500+) public schools, there are kids who do not try out for any sports team, thinking they won't make it, although the reality is that, at the high school level, you might have two or three superstars, while the rest of the team is essentially interchangeable. If you start an unathletic, uncoordinated kid out lifting weights and running drills the summer of his eighth grade year, he can be a role player by the time he is a junior/senior, in any sport.

Another benefit of private schooling!

Anyway, R.I.P. He seemed like a good man.

[JP]

Thomas Kincade news:

"New reports allege that he had planned to marry his live-in girlfriend, Amy Pinto-Walsh, as soon as he was finally divorced from his first wife Nanette, with whom he had four daughters."

Note the dreadful prole fashion sense of Pinto-Walsh.

The story does not support the wife's claim that Kincade cheated on her, but I suppose it's not impossible.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134776/Thomas-Kinkade-planned-death-marry-live-girlfriend-soon-divorce-finalized.html#ixzz1t4KsabqK

[JP]

"Link funding of departments to the default rate of their graduates."

It has been mentioned here before, I think, but the best solution is to make the college co-sign every student loan. If the college is on the hook for the money, they're less likely to encourage people to major in useless crap that does not lead to post-graduation jobs that enable the student to pay off the loan.

[ice hole]

I think rich people generally die in a hospice, a nursing home, or under the care of a paid attendant. A lot more boring, I realize, than driving off a boat ramp.

[destructure]

"Charity is a hobby and a competition for rich people and not something they do for purely altruistic purposes."

Richard Conniff says the same thing in "The Natural History of the Rich: A Field Guide". I read it a couple of years ago and it was brilliant. If you haven't read it you should. You'd love it.

I agree with your contempt for a lot of the elitists social-political opinions. But I disagree with your contempt for being rich itself. There is nothing wrong with being rich. What's wrong is the attitudes that so many rich people have.

But as Murray's book "Coming Apart" shows, most wealthy are living the conservative values the working class admires but preaching the liberal values the working class despises. Whereas the working class is doing the exact opposite. The middle class, of course, tends to be class obsessed and dislike both groups.

***

The Undiscovered Jew

Those suggestions are brilliant. But the place to push them is on the lefty blogs. Especially OWS and college libs. You certainly sound smart enough to understand why.

[Higgs Boson]

"I provide the community with this blog"

And I am grateful that you do. We don't always agree but I read every single post. You and Mangan.

[Carl the Greenskeeper Marx]

"Link funding of departments to the default rate of their graduates."

In fact, I've heard the opposite publicaly proposed.

Some universities want to hike the tuition of students in departments that graduate students likely to be more employable and productive like engineering. This money would then be used to subsidize the tuition of students in departments that are less employable and productive like many liberal arts.

From each according to their ability, to each according to their need want.

[Matt in RTP]

Here is a question for readers:

How smart do you need to be to work on Wall Street? I know there are a few commentators here who have done so. Mr. Williamson did so, and was apparently very successful.

I work as an environmental engineer -- I think it is safe to say that this is less intellectually demanding than Wall Street. My brother, who is more quantitatively skilled than I am, works as a software developer for a Silicon Valley start up, which, I would guess, is at least as challenging as Wall Street. Now, I wonder: does anyone here have any idea what the IQ floor would be for a Wall Street job (and I don't mean back-office positions)? Or are other factors more important (family connections, good looks, etc).

[DPG]

Philanthropy is just a form of conspicuous consumption meant to raise the donor's prestige. Look at me! I'm so filthy rich I can give money away! Driving a Porsche is the same thing, except that instead of having people see you in the car, they see your name in the paper affiliated with a good cause.

Anonymous donations are a small percentage of all philanthropy.

[Conquistador]

"Evidence? I see no evidence that the wealthy are a bunch of druggies. Charles Murry's nonsense was at least backed up with a lot of data. You got some?" - Dan

Confessions of a ivy league frat boy. He says drug usage is common particularly coke. Weed is labeled a "blue collar" drug.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/confessions-of-an-ivy-league-frat-boy-inside-dartmouths-hazing-abuses-20120328

[Camlost]

"I provide the community with this blog, which requires a considerable amount of my resources, and does a lot more good for this country than giving a few dollars to some kids in the ghetto."

And that's why I've donated to the Half Sigma fund. In fact, it's time to send some more dough to both you and Sailer. (and the Zimmerman fund once it gets straightened out)

[Conquistador]

"Does anyone here have any idea what the IQ floor would be for a Wall Street job (and I don't mean back-office positions)? Or are other factors more important (family connections, good looks, etc)." - Matt

Commentator davver worked on Wall Street. He says it's all about connections, looks, and attending the right schools.

[Fetzen]

Ode -> What I meant by "barriers to entry" was not so much legal or monetary issues, but something more complex.

It's what is sometimes called the "winner-takes-all" phenomenon.

[Rocky Balboa]

Getting into Wall Street is mainly about attending an elite university (preferrably Ivy League) at the undergrad or MBA level. It's also about GPA, extra cirriculars, previous internship experience (preferrably in i-banking, PE, or equity research), and a good interview. Doing a NCAA sport helps too.

It doesn't take a high IQ do anything the Wall Streeters do. Really I'd say the IQ floor is maybe 110-115 at most. There are too many people that are qualified to work in finance, so Wall Street firms use status credentials (school, prestigious extracirriculars like crew, study abroad experience) to select candidates.

[McBaddy]

"But I disagree with your contempt for being rich itself."

Then you are not very intelligent, money is a means to an end and many rich people sit on money that would be better spent on talented people all over the place. Being mega rich is an artifact of large populations and legal privileges built into society that don't account for inefficiencies of economies of scale that allow people who win the market lottery to suck monopolize a lot of money.

There are issues with size and scale that have nothing to do with 'having earned your money'.

The ideal intelligent rich person lives modestly and invests in others more talented then he is because he knows he cannot do anything by himself.

There are so many stories of many talented people who never get their shot and that there are mathematical and social/historical artifacts that naturally lead to inefficient outcomes in how resources are distributed.

The real world is a messy unfair and highly rigged place in many areas because of imperfect human inventions like markets.

It's a matter of holding yourself to a higher standard ethically beyond the mundane era in which one exists rather then just feeding what is base.

[destructure]

McBaddy

"Then you are not very intelligent, money is a means to an end and many rich people sit on money that would be better spent on talented people all over the place."

Oh yeah? Are you a "talented" person rich people should be spending money on?

***
"There are issues with size and scale that have nothing to do with 'having earned your money'. "

Maybe you should have chosen better parents? Then they could have either given you some money or the brains to make it yourself.

***

"The ideal intelligent rich person lives modestly and invests in others more talented then he is because he knows he cannot do anything by himself."

Ideal for who? You? If you're so talented then make your own money and do that.

***
"There are so many stories of many talented people who never get their shot"

Maybe they weren't that smart then?

[McBaddy]

"Maybe they weren't that smart then?"

And here you prove you aren't very bright, it is assumed that because you are bright 'you will just find a way to be successful'.

It's as naive as believing intelligent people don't have any limits. It's patent nonsense. It comes from the naive american belief that 'naturally' the best people will rise to the top.

We can think of the universe (for the sake of argument) as an infinitely large combinatorial space, even the fastest computer or the smartest person cannot even begin to scratch the surface. Just like there are problems in math and science that are bigger then any one lifetime of a scientist or mathematician.

Now I'm using an analogy but you're not showing any sense that you understand complexity or have any appreciation for human limits. There are plenty of smart people who are completely a mess outside their area of expertise because they have no training at all or are not immersed in the work.

A sign of an intelligent person is they have a good idea of how vast problem spaces really are and how small they are in relation to them because unless you are immersed in the situation/knowledge (and even then) there are tonnes of things you will miss.

The human mind is very weak in many areas, especially areas they know nothing about.

Consider marilyn vos savant controversy over fermats last theorem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_vos_Savant#Controversy_regarding_Fermat.27s_last_theorem

It's smart to know how little you know, not to just assume because you are smart you will just be able to manage and understand any situation given the limited time most people have in their lives to even dedicate themselves towards forming an opinion worth having on any subject they themselves don't directly know.

The reason half-sigma has contempt for wealth could be he's given the formation of his opinion a lot more time, reading and thought then then most people will ever commit to it.

Most people see wealth very naively as something to aspire to, more intelligent people see it as a tool to improve the world around them and make the world a saner place rather then just naively hoard resources that could be better spent elsewhere. It's something that comes with age and experience. Most young people and especially Americans see wealth as an end in itself and that's usually a sign of youth and immaturity and lack of intelligence.

[The Undiscovered Jew]

"Some universities want to hike the tuition of students in departments that graduate students likely to be more employable and productive like engineering."

Many colleges already have differential pricing.

That's another aspect of the college system conservatives should attack.

[The Undiscovered Jew]

"The Undiscovered Jew

Those suggestions are brilliant. But the place to push them is on the lefty blogs. Especially OWS and college libs. You certainly sound smart enough to understand why.

Posted by: destructure | April 25, 2012 at 12:59 PM"

Thanks, but they don't need to be focused ONLY at OWS. Intelligent Americans need college regardless of political ideology. The nice thing about the student debt crisis is that all of the policies I laid out can be hid under the Trojan Horse of "keeping college affordable" for the middle class, which makes their appeal bipartisan.

Since all of these policies - which are designed to defund most of the liberal arts department - would also have the effect reducing tuition, there's no reason to market them as a political route of attack. They can just be marketed as being ways to reduce tutition, without mentioning the fact most of the professors who would be laid off would be screwball liberal arts professors.

And it's long past time conservatives began looking for ways to pull the funding plug of the liberal arts departments instead of focusing on presidential and congressional elections every few years. The other legs of the leftist coalition are falling apart, except the college system.

Obama, Pelosi, and Reid can at least be voted out of office. The media is well on its way to being driven into bankruptcy by the internet. Unions are going bust and can be broken up with right to work laws.

But but only the college professors are completed insulated from reality and having to answer for their moronic policies. The college system must go.

So here again are policies to lobby Republican state and congressional officials on:

1) Slap federal price control mandates and require colleges to cut tuition costs as a prerequisite for receiving governments funds (if the left can impose price controls on healthcare via Obamacare because the middle class supposedly can't afford this basic service, then why should colleges be allowed to inflate *faster* than health insurance premiums?).

2) 60 credit degrees that have no gened requirements and allow the 80% of college students studying a vocational field to pass over the gened requirements, which are loaded with liberal arts classes.

3) Make both federal and private student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy court.

4) Make colleges cosigners to student debt.

5) Mandate colleges make wider use of online teaching to teach non-STEM and non-business courses.