Neal, you really need to ask a question, let your guest respond as much as they want to and stop piling on more questions until they're done. You'll ask five questions and only give them time for one answer. He'll be halfway through an interesting answer and you cut him off with your own takes. Chill out, bro. We're here to see you and hear him.
Agreed, you've described the Coward Stern method of interviewing. The interviewer should say as little as possible, not like Coward Stern, who gives the answer to his question as he asks his question.
@@JohnVKaravitisI was about to bring up Stern also. Sterns interviews are implicitly used as a showcase for his “interviewing skill”. The guests are merely props for his performance. It’s always about him.
This is true of most western nations. That being said, I'm from Canada and I did note that the US seems to very much support the caste system unofficially.
The overseer/trailer park/PWT class is in solidarity with the upper class conservatives who really in the long run don't care about the trailer people. The poor white people will vote Republican to get rid of abortion and social security. The truly rich can fly to Europe for their abortions. PWT gonna be in trouble.
@@ickster23 Nope there isn't a caste system in America. Nothing about this is specifically Western so don't know why you had to say "most western states" It's hilarious you said all that and refused to mention the Canada caste system which is apparently a large problem in Canada.
The speaker seems really scared to say something of substance. And Neil is desperately trying to find the phraseology that will align him with the comfort to answer earnestly
I wouldn't say that. The Harvard thing is old system. Before Harvard had a multi billion dollar endowment portfolio that system is how it paid for itself. It was a known tradeoff the Ivy League made and the only way they could keep their doors open. To provide a truly world class education is expensive and in the 16, 17, 1800s there were no public grants and the economic system didn't allow them to do what they do now. So the system was, 100 or so dumb kids who's parents paid obscene amounts of money to pay for the thousand smart kids to receive one of the best educations in the world. That's how The Ivy League worked. Without those paying for a degree the university couldn't afford the rest. A necessary evil. The problem is we aren't in those times anymore. The Ivy League finances itself in a completely different manner. But the old system is still there.
@@AD-df5tmthere’s a problem with nepotism, and the current state of laws. If someone, even secretly, calls a company out for nepotism in an open call for hiring, the company has to prove that the nepobaby has credentials that go above and beyond that of the actually qualified workers who were not hired. That means getting them a “degree” from a top rated university, and then putting them in charge of a shell company for a couple years before introducing said nepobaby into the company. Their credentials are squeaky clean, and no one can dispute it in court.
I could tell you some super-unfair things that’d buttress your statement, but it’s also true that most schools of renown help students do valuable research in thinking areas that aren’t huge career money-makers. Classic Lit, Archaeology, Languages / linguistics, Philosophy, etc. And most professors want to help out those with less-privileged backgrounds. But yah, being forced to do group-projects with some people who’d never worked, never been hungry, never done their own laundry… that chafed at wounds I still have.
Back in 1998 my wife taught French at Harvard and she had a student who showed up late, didn’t study, and performed poorly. Her supervisor told her that student had to receive at least a B since her parents had donated a lot of money.
@@stop.juststop There was an in depth study done by The Economist and it showed that intelligence is negatively correlated with those who earn above 170K USD in the 500 biggest companies(or maybe it was 50 biggest companies, it's been a minute). They point tot he fact that smart people have humility or self awareness to "not ask for absurd amounts higher" while those who can barely do basic arithmetic ask for the absurd and then some, and because they are "so and so's son/daughter" they get exactly that crazy huge number. Look at DJT and his family, literally not a single one of the kids can have a single iota of original thought without giving themselves an aneurysm and they have plenty of money to purchase materials or tutors and it will never help.
I worked across the street from Harvard for years and I remember getting to know a guy who was a visiting professor there and he related similar stories about how he was pressured to not fail certain students for such reasons.
I've said it for years after watching many rich kids of "questionable intelligence" graduate from so many 'elite" schools. "There is no way that EVERY rich person's kid is a Rocket Scientist"
In fact, they are typically mediocre. Regression to the mean is a real thing. Look at Chelsea Clinton or Alex Soros. They are... just people. Mediocre. Not even remotely brilliant.
GAWD DAMIT!!!! I KNEW IT!!!!! I got my BA degree from Harvard in 1994. I had many classes in Chan School of Public Health with students who their last names are on buildings around campus, & I KNEW they weren't intelligent enough to even be accepted to Harvard! FUCK!!!! I heard rumors about the Z List!!
@@hd7704 Let bro live. Unless you enjoy things like dysentery, cholera, and the plague. These people are smart and we need them. Intelligence is not shown by the field you choose. Unless of course your field of study is something useless like computer graphics... (😉)
@@SUPER_WOLFMOON Wow, you're both ignorant and arrogant. You're confusing medicine and the concept of 'public health' with educational programs granting degrees in public health...which is what I was talking about. The cures or solutions for those diseases you so confidently listed were all found well before "public health" became an area of study 🤣Should I use smaller words and diagrams?
The CIA job interview anecdote the guest references is attributed to Lewis Lapham. He came from a very privileged background and spent most of his career as a journalist and author, criticizing the political and economic inequality the elite perpetuate. His books are eloquently written and fantastic. He recently passed away, in July 2024.
Dr. Thomas Sowell said it best. "The best thing about having a Harvard degree is never again having to be impressed by someone with a Harvard degree." I suggest we can just skip the first part and move directly to the second.
As a leftist, I agree and I hate this type of credentialism but from my experience, Thomas Sowell fans are usually trump fans as well. What do you think of the fact he brags about his Ivy League credentials when he was obviously one of those mediocre students who got in and graduated thanks to their parents wealth and connections?
As a leftist, I agree and I hate this type of credentialism but from my experience, Thomas Sowell fans are usually trump fans as well. What do you think of the fact he brags about his Ivy League credentials when he was obviously one of those mediocre students who got in and graduated thanks to their parents wealth and connections?
@@morenitomoreno1282 I'm not a big fan of Trump , but I do acknowledge that he has shown he loves this country more than almost anyone else at that level of politics - to the tune of a large fortune being pissed away to be in the game instead of just walking away - if he'd walked away, those lawsuits and charges would have never happened, imho. That said, I honestly have never heard HIM bragging about his schooling - I've heard a lot of other people pointing it out, but himself? Not so much. Also, I say this as a father of a child who has an advanced degree from an Ivy League school. The degree doesn't make the person, the person makes the degree worthwhile, which is what Dr Sowell was really saying...
@@CaptainSeamus “he loves the country more than bla-bla-bla” this trope is one of the dumbest by conservatives and nationalists. First of all, we don’t have the same definition for what “loving the country” is. For Nationalists, it means humping the flag(which Trump literally did) and worshiping superficial nationalist symbols. For leftists it means caring about the welfare of your fellow citizens. Trump is a billionaire who was born into money. Clearly a narcissist and massive egomaniac who doesn’t care about anybody else but him. Clearly has a disdain for regular people. Now, politicians like Obama have the same disdain for plebs as he too is a giant narcissist with a superiority complex, but with more self awareness, more temperament, more intelligence so he’s better at hiding it. A guy like Bernie sanders clearly loves *Americans* more than trump because unlike that corporate goon, he wants to protect workers and consumers against corporate hegemony. He wants them to have higher wages (Trump literally said “wages are too high” ). He wants them to have the same good healthcare that all these Republican and Dem politicians enjoy but refuse to give regular Americans and criticize it as “communism” yet they love that “communism” for them. He wants Americans to have guaranteed paid holidays like workers have had for decades in every other developed country. He wants them to have guaranteed paid maternity leave, he wants working class people to be able to go to college without being saddled with debt just like trust fund cases like Trump and his kids did. He wants veterans to have higher wages and better benefits… that’s actually how to assess how much one loves his fellow citizens not based on how much they ostentatiously profess they love for the country and how big the flag in front of their house is. This is childish. Trump literally said we should suspend the constitution so he can be put back in the White House (just cause you didn’t hear about it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen so Google it) so again, he cares about himself more than anything else. Even the constitution that conservatives like to treat like a sacred religious text when it’s convenient, Trump said “screw it”. And he has bragged many times about going to Ivy League schools and bragged about his supposed extraordinary intelligence (that he actually does regularly so if you know anything about this guy, no way you’ve never heard it) yet he went to extreme measures to hide his high school and college records. His sister got caught on a hot mic, talking about how dumb he is and how she had to cheat in order to get him into the Ivy League schools he went to. That’s who he really is and Sowell has defended him, contradicting positions he’s taken in the past. And also, I’m sorry but Sowell has defended every us wars, he’s even defended European colonialism and imperialism. Yet White conservatives don’t understand why black people don’t care for him and virtually all his fans are white conservatives 😂
Oh come on- daddy provides an endowment and junior parties for four years and gets a prestigious degree. It is not a college it is a rich kids day care.
and then they turn right around and profess their insurmountable greatness because they "attended Harvard" when all that literally means is "I come from money".
The thing about institutions like these is that they are also a place where money and talent can rub shoulders. This gives wealthy families access to talent, but more important to society it gives talent access to capital. That is, if it weren't for the wealthy kids attending these colleges, the talented kids would have no particular reason to want to be there. There are lots of good state schools that can provide a more or less equal education - what they _can't_ provide is the opportunity to network with very wealthy and influential families who can provide the funding and political connections they need to succeed.
The loose affinity is called a network. There's no alliance because there's no agreement on common goals or objectives. There are just these incidental collaborations between influential entities to generate a mutually desired outcome. I learned that from Washington Week PBS on UA-cam.
Just to be clear, Simon's dad has always done very well for himself. He has held many high-level positions at the NYT, one of the highest-paying newspapers in the United States (and probably the world) and has had books published since the 1980s. His wife is also at the NYT. He has also been an executive producer on "Succession" and "Veep." The Simon family might not be enormously wealthy but it's likely that no one in this comment section will ever enjoy a similar bank account.
The way he made it seem oh my dad was a theather critic and I went to a 70,000 high school I assumed he was old money. Nobody cares if you’re rich just admit it
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” ― Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
I think the key to the continue focus on “weight and convolutions” of one’s brain, is what it may bring to the evolutionary tract of man kind, that may one day end the seemingly inevitable fact that people of the same potential will always be relegated to work in cotton fields and sweatshops. But, pseudo intellectualism will always win out over the truth. We must learn from the pyramids, not become them.
That is such a bullshit sentiment. A once in multiple generations talent is just assumed to obviously have existed in a cotton field because why? Because you have such a horribly biased mindset that there's no chance that a unique talent at that level would be able to thrive and grow. Diminish every obstacle to his achievement because you've decided there is a greater victim group someone, just because....
Yes, they seem to keep to their own. It is what the unpaid intern program was before now. Only the wealthy could afford to do the unpaid internship and the corporations hired from that pool. I believe that program was shut down, at least in part. Also why some were caught buying their kids into university. It hurts the kids the most, it just shows the parents not care about them beyond how the kid makes the parent look or that their parents have faith in their ability.
This is why you don't dumpstat Cha for Int, all you get is smart enough to understand you have no societal value, simply because people "don't like you". Nobody has ever ended up a billionaire by being smart.
@@noomade I went to one of those private schools in England. Actually, they call them public schools, colleges, or independent schools depending on who they want to empress. And the mixture is the same as described in the video. People like me who just rocked up to take the entrance exam, and somehow got in, and those whose parents had been there, and they had been on a waiting list since before they were born. From what I know personally, they were all smart enough to do anything they wanted, even the dumb ones. A lifetime of prep schools and private tutors can mold even the biggest dullard into something competent. So, they just do what they want. That is biggest difference between regular people, and the elite, they just get to do what they want. Some want to rule the world, so they go to Oxford and study PPE, and the rest just do something else. I imagine in the States it is the same. I personally know people who work from everything from teachers, to artists, to bankers, to barristers, politicians, actors, journalists, chefs, film executives, and where they came from doesn't really predict where they end up. Like I said they just get to do what they want. If you are from an elite background, you'll always have enough help to get where you want to be. You'll fail upwards, or downwards if you want it.
@@noomade It's because it is a successful method for progression. If you can get your child into a public school, they grow up with the kind of people who later in life can give them a hand up. Also, since the UK is so classist a lot of institutions will throw out an application which doesn't mention public school, or Oxbridge. I think they see it as an investment for the future. I've had that very same conversation with people from the outside the UK. They seem confused that a public school is not for the general public.
@@ES-qm5hr Trump says as much. That guys an idiot and he's almost 80 years old. Failed upwards, can't even go to jail for the most serious offenses in the country.
Props to Simon for acknowledging such a taboo subject publicly, this is still a not-quite-open secret and people deserve to know how the world actually (maybe?) works
I grew up blue collar but my area was a bit old school where you had blue collar and wealthy people living nearby or even in the same neighborhoods. A LOT of kids were pampered by their parents. Bought them brand new cars in high school, didn't have them work a job even in the summer, etc..... A lot of them went to top colleges. It is amazing decades later how many failed and are working blue collar jobs or lost their family fortune. When you don't teach your kids to stand on their own and face some controlled adversarial situations while they are young you doom them to failure when they are adults.
I grew up in the UK and got so sick of the class system there that I moved to Germany when I was 21. Funnily enough, my first ever girl friend was a Brit with a privileged background, Eton educated, a father with letters after his name and contacts to the highest places. I loved her, but I simply couldn't stand her friends and relatives. We parted, we both came from different worlds.
@@johnwright9372 That's the problem with your types. You think that the small amount of knowledge you have encompasses the world and anything beyond that must be wrong. Eton is often used as a allegory for public school. But of course you don't know that because your education stopped when you left school.
It is horrifying that some or most of them have no clue, and this explains a lot about their intense self-focus, feeling free to make policy that has little or no basis in reality, feeling confident they can do what they want, etc., etc. Politically and financially, this is a critical topic.
I was friends with a girl whose parents were enormously wealthy. I remember lamenting to her about wanting grow up somewhere else and asked her where she would rather. She had never though about or had no ideas that their were different places outside of our suburban bubble. It shocked me. Very sad. She went to college and smoked a ton of crack to the point her face looked like it was melting.
I know more that one person who was accepting Harvard, MIT, etc, but obviously couldn't afford to go to a school like that. Instead they got amazing scholarships and attended a state college for free. The school someone went to often says way more about their family's money than it says about their abilities.
I can't speak to Harvard, but MIT moved on to needs based pay decades ago. None of the people I know that went to MIT paid a dime if their parents made less than 70k a year (this was a decade ago, now that range is 100-140k)
@@a.k8069 even scandal mongering investigative reporters looking at athletic potential etc aknowledge that MIT don't play that - they just say, "go to Harvard and get out of my office".
@@a.k8069 MITs undergraduate population is also not very big. There is lots of "cream" at other schools, where they definitely make themselves known. Except for the dark corners of mathematics, those aptitudes, energy levels and curiosities are impossible to hide.
In Harvard, you just have to be smart enough - just, ya know, good luck being one of them lol... "Harvard costs what your family can afford. We make sure of that. If your family's income is less than $85,000, you'll pay nothing. For families who earn between $85,000 and $150,000, the expected contribution is between zero and ten percent of your annual income."
@@edwardmilano4610 Was he an underachiever at the time? I don't know much about that period of his life. An easier example would have been Donald Trump, a comically stupid person and notably terrible businessman who graduated from a highly respected business school.
Neal there's nothing inherently wrong with privilege, it's when people deny that it gave them more opportunities or deny that it happened at all is when it's an issue. Jack Quaid recently addressed his privilege of growing up as the son and nephew of Hollywood actors. He owned it and said yeah, that gave me a huge advantage and I would've been insane not to use that, and he has pretty successfully backed it up with his acting, enough so that I assumed his last name was just a coincidence until recently.
exactly, I also think nepotism is overblown, nobody's shocked when the son of a farmer becomes a farmer, they shouldn't be shocked when the son of actors becomes an actor.
How is Brennan's take on privilege so limited? "oh I am gonna be a leader" It's about the access, networks and just the belief that you can go and do stuff. In Simon's case, the cultural capital that his father had was enough to get him to this very good school that gave him a start.
Yes but the vitriol towards people who were kids and didn't consciously choose to be raised in privilege is ridiculous. EVERYONE would choose to be raised in a life of privilege if given the choice.
@@JNJ1014 there is vitriol only towards people who insist that all their success is just hArD WoRk and the unsuccessful ones just do not work hard enough.
@@samanthab1923 it's hardly about a route. What do you have on stake? It was certainly not pulling your whole family out of poverty by attempting to be in the arts and making a living
@@stephendaley266 we are all in the same club of suffering but not suffering much as xyz, but abc has it all. only if I could be like ABC, in doing so xyz is so displaced their entire way of living has to be changed.
Because they bribed a crew coach. That's different (and a lot cheaper) than donating a particle accelerator. As screwed up as the system is you could at least say that the school and its students benefit from rich people "donating" tons of money in exchange for their kids getting in. I mean they get a new building or new equipment or whatever and that benefits everybody. Nobody benefited from Aunt Becky's scheme except for her doofus kid.
Always got the impression of the hyper wealthy that they're not really working together so much as agreeing as to what the general rules for engagement are. Like laws that are bad for business in general would be bad for all of them so they would lobby against them, not because they had a evil meeting somewhere but because they operate at levels where what is good and bad for corporate interests is pretty clear. Get government red tape out of the way, keep the poor turned on one another, try to keep the middle class comfy, and then squeeze the ever lovin shit out of people's pockets when and where they let you. There's no way you can have this many giant fish in any size body of water without them having some form of domain or contact with one another. Banks might compete, but when some shit like a real estate market bubble pops and the citizens start goin for the torches, they sure do form ranks awfully fuckin quick in response.
Yup. And they talk of “class warfare” to try and shame the bugs. Like someone provoking someone for years and when they hit back they’re shocked, shocked. Oldest trick in the book really.
It's called the donor-class. If you're a big money donor to a judge, a sherrif, a US Senator, etc... when you need help, the finger goes right to the scale. If you donate to a prestigious school... that finger is made of lead.
I agree with a few comments that this is a pretty rough job of doing an interview. He never really fully lets him answer a question before he's on to something else and doesn't seem to be getting to the heart of the matter. It feels like there's a good interview somewhere in the mix but he's not finding it. It's a pretty frustrating interview overall. I hope he reads these comments because there are some points that he should maybe be paying attention to.
It's DEI for well-connected wealthy people. Affirmative action for rich kids got GW Bush into Yale, Trump into Penn, Jared Kushner into Yale, etc. They all got "gentleman's Cs"
There is no comparison between dei and rich kids. Dei is for people who belong and can keep up but becsuze of the color of their skin are always kept out. Try to keep up
"It's DEI for well-connected wealthy people." It's the exact opposite of DEI. I get what you mean, but it implies that DEI beneficiaries are undeserving.
Neal, when you have a guy who is really giving it up, please don’t step on him in an interview. The more he talked the more interesting it was the more you interrupted the opposite happened.
I went to BU and we had the College of General Studies. We had an *entire separate associate's degree college" for dumb rich kids. And Im grateful because it kept them away from the reat of us that thought for a living. I met a lot of CGS kids and they would basically smoke weed, slip class, and get a BU degree anyway. Case in point: mt weed dealer was a CGS kid. he never went to class bit you need a B - average to stay in BU. My friend told me he just needed to npt get an F. Everyone I went to school with waa either top 3 in HS or foreign paying full tuition. these kids paid for iur scholarships. im glad they exist or those greedy assholes would have not given me a half scholarship
A friend of mine told me about his cousin who had obtained a 'General Studies' degree, he had nothing for disdain for that accomplishment. LOL truthfully, I was kind of jealous that it existed as a program and that I didn't know about it.
I mean, BU is an okay competitive school, but it's not top 10 or even top 20 nationally. These kids must barely have a pulse to need a separate curriculum not to flunk out.
BU is a mostly fraudulent, overpriced college. It's not exclusive, and half the admissions are Asian students who got poor grades but have a bit of money.
7:20 “I don’t believe in conspiracy theories”. That statement right there tells me all I need to know about this man’s level of intellect. If human beings did not have a tendency to conspire, they wouldn’t have had to make it a crime. Half the adults in this country have a child-like level of naïveté.
Also I found out police departments across the United States have a unofficial Do not pull over list for rich kids allowing them to drive drunk and race cars at night.
The common equation is greed, a strong lack of care for mankind, and overblown privilege. I was in Lyford Cay eating at the Club and listening to the lady at the next table complaining about the size of the shrimp which were delicious and large. The whole community represented the above. 😮
Elite universities and colleges are elite bc they do top level research, but to pay for that top level research, they need funding from extremely wealthy people. So, elite schools admit two classes of students, the academically gifted to help with their research and the children of rich parents to pay for that research and provide networking opportunities for the other kids.
I remember reading an article awhile back that the most common grade at one of these "top tier", supposedly exceptional universities was an A. Because, hey, when Daddy pays that much money, he doesn't want to see bad grades.
You probably mean Upper Montclair Golf Club. Montclair Golf Club is investment banker types, rich but not rich-rich. And the answer is your Scotty Cameron, forged putter. If it’s ten, fifteen years only and a gift from your Auntie Joan (you shouldn’t have to ask) that is a plus.
It’s all just another good old boy’s network, same as you’d see in any backwoods small town, just with vastly more money, access, & influence. Basically, it’s the goodest boy’s network.
Everyone convinces themselves the horrible things they’re doing is correct, even when murdering millions of people they’re sure emotionally it’s for “the greater good” even as they know intellectually it’s to give them the power and wealth they crave. It’s of the utmost importance that they dehumanise “those people”. They must not conspire to make it happen
The host interrupts too much. The guy is in mid sentence about to say something interesting and this guy just talks all over him and we're off on another tangent. Also, the "I don't believe in conspiracies" blather is really midwit.
"If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality." ― Stephen Hawking, 2015 Reddit AMA
So this dude Dad, could make or break major new york broadway shows and Neal is just like I dont care he just wrote for the NY'er. Love how comedians just hate critics.
Zuckerberg was in the middle. A highly intelligent kid who got into Harvard, did not join a final club, but joined the fraternity AEPi. Among our alumni brothers, he is one of the most successful.
Imagine listening to this after we see affirmative action tossed out as discrimination. God forbid a rich person actually has to earn something and all the while other rich people are concerned about the actually smart scholarship kids who may take their spot. Just disgusting.
He is right, Zuck and others are successful because he is somewhere in between and good at everything. He isn’t a genius but can assemble genius very well.
Zuck is definitely smart, but not a certified Genius. He came from a top 5% family. Plus some luck. Those combined are why he's so rich. Basically, as your wealth goes down, you need to be smarter and smarter to have the same outcome. Along with some random other factors, like some industries are more hostile to women, or have racists. In those sectors, you need to be a notch smarter or harder working again.
Yeah, getting into Math 55 means that you are brilliant. People can get good education everywhere, but I would love to see all these people claiming that Zuck is not that smart try to take that class.
It's called "A conspiracy of one". People with an interest in.... power/money/politics, gravitate toward each other and work with each other to increase their individual chances of succeeding at their chosen interest.
Banality of evil. Which is just to say that maybe rich people should have a sense of when they're doing things for rational reasons, and of when they're doing things because some guy, who they get the friendship fuzzies around because they share a hair color and taste in watches, recommended a course of action. Of course, non-wealthy people do this stuff, too, with similarly disastrous effects in aggregate.
I spent a few years among VERY high-end lawyers, including those from Harvard Law. I was seriously underwhelmed. You could tell they were smart, but then they would fall for and believe the silliest things - especially if those things were advanced by another "high-status" person. It very much was like they were in their own little make-believe world where they were the only people who knew anything.
I like how Simon acknowledged his privilege and was very honest about the world he encountered at Harvard, but he's also done well with what he was given... He's a very talented writer -- wrote for SNL, has written books of short stories, etc. He's very funny off the cuff, too. (This was a more serious conversation, though.)
There also, at least at Yale and Princeton, some bright and rich students at Ivy schools. I know I became friends some (and a legacy at Columbia, not so bright). And I grew up relatively poor in theSo. Bronx and did not go to an Ivy.
7:33 for the record Mark Zuckerberg grew up rich (not as rich as some of the top families), but Zuckerberg's dad was a Dentist and mother was a psychiatrist, he attended 'Phillips Exeter Academy' an "Ivy Feeder School", and started programing small apps from an early age. So he is on the rich side of that quadrant (rich kid, but average).
At my state university, the students on athletic scholarships were given a list of teachers who would pass them & give them good grades. So, it happens at different levels. Rich students don't need financial aid, so they get a pass. If the school wants top athletes, these students get an easy ride. Frankly, I don't see the difference. Those of us who have to work hard for our grades, usually keep this work ethic once we leave college & achieve success in life.
@@mtngrl5859The difference is that student athletes actually have something inherent to themselves to offer. If you don't like that, then maybe we should end the farce that North American sports leagues continue to support by having minimum age limits and do what Europe does with the Academy system where their schooling and training are taken over by their clubs. Nepo babies have nothing but their parents' money to offer. They literally can sit on a couch for 18 years and get bought into university. And not all student athletes are dumb. Most of them aren't.
Re that loose affiliation of powerful people... George Carlin nailed it when he said "You don't need a formal conspiracy when interests converge. They went to the same universities and fraternities, they're on the same boards of directors, they're in the same country clubs..." you get the idea.
I studied maths and physics in one of the best college in Ireland. There was one Chinese girl that once sent me her homework to help out and I shit you not.. those were the easiest "primary school tier" questions I have ever seen.. that's how I discovered that the rich Chinese kids have special degrees that are significantly easier but far more expensive compared to normal university degrees
Not realizing the privilege of just being born smart is pretty funny. Hard work or being a decent person are probably much more worthy attributes to praise.. the single mom working multiple jobs and taking night class is much more impressive to me
Her being a single mom contradicts your point. Since the majority of single mom aren't widows or divorcees but impulsive women who sleep with random men without thinking of concequences.
There are other back doors into Harvard. For instance, anyone the Episcopal monastery on Memorial Drive on the Charles River sends to Harvard Divinity School is automatically enrolled. And while I was staying there for a one week retreat back in the ‘80s some of the lay brothers admitted to me that the only reason they joined the Cowley Fathers was so they could get a free ride through their divinity school. And they can afford the tuition because they just renovated their Ralph Adams Cram designed gothic chapel for $18 million.
@@raymondsmith9886 No, because their goal was to be ordained as Episcopalian priests, although curiously, none of them were sent to the nearby Episcopal divinity school, although it belonged to the same theological consortium, so they probably took at least a couple of courses over there as well. The Episcopal Church is the only protestant church in the United States which has celibates living in monasteries and convents. Harvard Divinity is really Unitarian, although of course people from other churches go there as well. I found them kind of off-putting and never returned after my one week vocations inquiry retreat. In any event, the Episcopal Church USA is a dying religion so far as I could tell, as is their sister church the Anglican Church of Canada.
I grew up about 1/4 mile from Harvard. I made a small fortune selling Chicken and Beef Bullion packaged as Hashish to Harvard Students. You want Blond or Black? You can always tell someone from Harvard, you just can't tell them much.
I see in the Joe Rogan era and interview consists of introducing a guest and then not letting them get a word in. At least Joe Rogan is stoned, what's this narcissists excuse?
The whole Ivy League thing has bothered me for awhile for a number of reasons. One thing we hear is "they get the best professors". Best at what? Some are, definitely, hired for their research ability. Do you think that Einstein, Bohr, or Rutherford were great teachers? Maybe. Doubt that is universally the case. Maybe only if you were near their intellectual level. And even if you have a 1600 SAT, you aren't necessarily at that level. So, best at what? Okay, what, exactly are they teaching at Yale, that makes it superior to MSU or Texas? If they have "secrets" about, say, economics, and I were running another serious university, I'd be putting one of my Phds on sabbatical to go take that course and come back and share it with my school. Heck, I'm pretty sure a number of the professors at "regular" universities are already alumni at Ivy League schools. What, do they sign a NDA? "We're going to teach you the way economics REALLY work here at Princeton, but if you go out an teach it at OSU, we will sue you for that." None of that makes any sense. Perhaps they start with more (certainly not all) of the 1600 SATs, but is the school itself better? Only thing I'm sure they are "better" at is giving the students connections. It is about connections, the rest sounds like self-promotion.
Someone told me often times people attend a university like Harvard not just for the education but the doors attendance to that university opens. The fact that the Z list exists does not shock me, however, them and the others that enter as a result of influence be it money or notoriety and fame take up valuable slots that some brilliant individuals would benefit. But Benjamin Franklin said it best of Harvard grads, " I reflected in my Mind on the extream Folly of those Parents, who, blind to their Childrens Dulness, and insensible of the Solidity of their Skulls, because they think their Purses can afford it, will needs send them to the Temple of Learning, where, for want of a suitable Genius, they learn little more than how to carry themselves handsomely, and enter a Room genteely, (which might as well be acquir'd at a Dancing-School,) and from whence they return, after Abundance of Trouble and Charge, as great Blockheads as ever, only more proud and self-conceited."
Neal, you really need to ask a question, let your guest respond as much as they want to and stop piling on more questions until they're done. You'll ask five questions and only give them time for one answer. He'll be halfway through an interesting answer and you cut him off with your own takes. Chill out, bro. We're here to see you and hear him.
Omg this drove me insane watching this video
Agreed, you've described the Coward Stern method of interviewing. The interviewer should say as little as possible, not like Coward Stern, who gives the answer to his question as he asks his question.
IOW…. Let’s chill on the Adderall
Well said
@@JohnVKaravitisI was about to bring up Stern also. Sterns interviews are implicitly used as a showcase for his “interviewing skill”. The guests are merely props for his performance. It’s always about him.
There doesn't need to be a formal conspiracy for those in power to act in mutual self-interest.
That’s exactly what they talked about
Most real conspiracies are out in the open
it's the gatekeeping that's the issue
Yeah this whole segment would have drove Carlin nuts
Conservative think tanks, like the authors of Project 2025, *The Heritage Club,* are where those in power literally formalize conspiracy.
It's called class solidarity. Class solidarity doesn't exist in the US *except* for the upper class.
This is true of most western nations. That being said, I'm from Canada and I did note that the US seems to very much support the caste system unofficially.
Welcome to the Corporate States of America where only the rich have rights and have it all handed to them
Exsactly
The overseer/trailer park/PWT class is in solidarity with the upper class conservatives who really in the long run don't care about the trailer people. The poor white people will vote Republican to get rid of abortion and social security. The truly rich can fly to Europe for their abortions. PWT gonna be in trouble.
@@ickster23 Nope there isn't a caste system in America.
Nothing about this is specifically Western so don't know why you had to say "most western states"
It's hilarious you said all that and refused to mention the Canada caste system which is apparently a large problem in Canada.
This guy is so much more interesting than the interviewer. Should’ve let him finish the points he was going to make.
The speaker seems really scared to say something of substance. And Neil is desperately trying to find the phraseology that will align him with the comfort to answer earnestly
In other words: ivy League schools are diploma mills for the rich😂😂😂
If you think the uber rich kids need diplomas you are crazy 😂. Its purely just legacy and status.
I wouldn't say that. The Harvard thing is old system. Before Harvard had a multi billion dollar endowment portfolio that system is how it paid for itself. It was a known tradeoff the Ivy League made and the only way they could keep their doors open. To provide a truly world class education is expensive and in the 16, 17, 1800s there were no public grants and the economic system didn't allow them to do what they do now. So the system was, 100 or so dumb kids who's parents paid obscene amounts of money to pay for the thousand smart kids to receive one of the best educations in the world. That's how The Ivy League worked. Without those paying for a degree the university couldn't afford the rest. A necessary evil. The problem is we aren't in those times anymore. The Ivy League finances itself in a completely different manner. But the old system is still there.
@@AD-df5tmthere’s a problem with nepotism, and the current state of laws. If someone, even secretly, calls a company out for nepotism in an open call for hiring, the company has to prove that the nepobaby has credentials that go above and beyond that of the actually qualified workers who were not hired. That means getting them a “degree” from a top rated university, and then putting them in charge of a shell company for a couple years before introducing said nepobaby into the company. Their credentials are squeaky clean, and no one can dispute it in court.
Plutocracy at work, baby!
I could tell you some super-unfair things that’d buttress your statement, but it’s also true that most schools of renown help students do valuable research in thinking areas that aren’t huge career money-makers. Classic Lit, Archaeology, Languages / linguistics, Philosophy, etc. And most professors want to help out those with less-privileged backgrounds. But yah, being forced to do group-projects with some people who’d never worked, never been hungry, never done their own laundry… that chafed at wounds I still have.
Back in 1998 my wife taught French at Harvard and she had a student who showed up late, didn’t study, and performed poorly. Her supervisor told her that student had to receive at least a B since her parents had donated a lot of money.
MONEY ALWAYS TALKS
I appreciate you sharing this. I’ve always thought nepotism was much more common than intelligence.
@@stop.juststop There was an in depth study done by The Economist and it showed that intelligence is negatively correlated with those who earn above 170K USD in the 500 biggest companies(or maybe it was 50 biggest companies, it's been a minute). They point tot he fact that smart people have humility or self awareness to "not ask for absurd amounts higher" while those who can barely do basic arithmetic ask for the absurd and then some, and because they are "so and so's son/daughter" they get exactly that crazy huge number. Look at DJT and his family, literally not a single one of the kids can have a single iota of original thought without giving themselves an aneurysm and they have plenty of money to purchase materials or tutors and it will never help.
I worked across the street from Harvard for years and I remember getting to know a guy who was a visiting professor there and he related similar stories about how he was pressured to not fail certain students for such reasons.
This is a believable anecdote for sure
I've said it for years after watching many rich kids of "questionable intelligence" graduate from so many 'elite" schools. "There is no way that EVERY rich person's kid is a Rocket Scientist"
In fact, they are typically mediocre. Regression to the mean is a real thing. Look at Chelsea Clinton or Alex Soros. They are... just people. Mediocre. Not even remotely brilliant.
George "Dubya" Bush
Dubyanis actually smart just not blazingly so. He is the middle tier of nepobaby @@TheCdecisneros
Those schools are hard to get into. The schools are not any harder than middle-tier colleges once you get admitted. The trick is getting in.
@@okrajoe So, you've been to both I assume? Hence the deep knowledge on the subject.
This 12 minute clip explains more about the workings of the world than most things I’ve seen or read in my life. Incredible.
GAWD DAMIT!!!! I KNEW IT!!!!! I got my BA degree from Harvard in 1994. I had many classes in Chan School of Public Health with students who their last names are on buildings around campus, & I KNEW they weren't intelligent enough to even be accepted to Harvard! FUCK!!!! I heard rumors about the Z List!!
What did you think of the college admissions scandal
Nobody who majored in public health, regardless of school, should be too indignant about academic standards.
@@hd7704
Let bro live. Unless you enjoy things like dysentery, cholera, and the plague. These people are smart and we need them. Intelligence is not shown by the field you choose. Unless of course your field of study is something useless like computer graphics... (😉)
@@hd7704I found the hater 🙄
@@SUPER_WOLFMOON Wow, you're both ignorant and arrogant. You're confusing medicine and the concept of 'public health' with educational programs granting degrees in public health...which is what I was talking about. The cures or solutions for those diseases you so confidently listed were all found well before "public health" became an area of study 🤣Should I use smaller words and diagrams?
The CIA job interview anecdote the guest references is attributed to Lewis Lapham. He came from a very privileged background and spent most of his career as a journalist and author, criticizing the political and economic inequality the elite perpetuate. His books are eloquently written and fantastic. He recently passed away, in July 2024.
Simon seems very interesting, but Neal can't shut up enough for him to finish a thought. He comes from the Bert Kriescher School of Interviewing.
It appears Monty Python's "Upper Class Twit of the Year" sketch was a documentary.
The UK is also full of them. 😂
Dr. Thomas Sowell said it best. "The best thing about having a Harvard degree is never again having to be impressed by someone with a Harvard degree."
I suggest we can just skip the first part and move directly to the second.
As a leftist, I agree and I hate this type of credentialism but from my experience, Thomas Sowell fans are usually trump fans as well. What do you think of the fact he brags about his Ivy League credentials when he was obviously one of those mediocre students who got in and graduated thanks to their parents wealth and connections?
As a leftist, I agree and I hate this type of credentialism but from my experience, Thomas Sowell fans are usually trump fans as well. What do you think of the fact he brags about his Ivy League credentials when he was obviously one of those mediocre students who got in and graduated thanks to their parents wealth and connections?
@@morenitomoreno1282 I'm not a big fan of Trump , but I do acknowledge that he has shown he loves this country more than almost anyone else at that level of politics - to the tune of a large fortune being pissed away to be in the game instead of just walking away - if he'd walked away, those lawsuits and charges would have never happened, imho.
That said, I honestly have never heard HIM bragging about his schooling - I've heard a lot of other people pointing it out, but himself? Not so much.
Also, I say this as a father of a child who has an advanced degree from an Ivy League school. The degree doesn't make the person, the person makes the degree worthwhile, which is what Dr Sowell was really saying...
@@CaptainSeamus “he loves the country more than bla-bla-bla” this trope is one of the dumbest by conservatives and nationalists. First of all, we don’t have the same definition for what “loving the country” is. For Nationalists, it means humping the flag(which Trump literally did) and worshiping superficial nationalist symbols. For leftists it means caring about the welfare of your fellow citizens. Trump is a billionaire who was born into money. Clearly a narcissist and massive egomaniac who doesn’t care about anybody else but him. Clearly has a disdain for regular people. Now, politicians like Obama have the same disdain for plebs as he too is a giant narcissist with a superiority complex, but with more self awareness, more temperament, more intelligence so he’s better at hiding it. A guy like Bernie sanders clearly loves *Americans* more than trump because unlike that corporate goon, he wants to protect workers and consumers against corporate hegemony. He wants them to have higher wages (Trump literally said “wages are too high” ). He wants them to have the same good healthcare that all these Republican and Dem politicians enjoy but refuse to give regular Americans and criticize it as “communism” yet they love that “communism” for them. He wants Americans to have guaranteed paid holidays like workers have had for decades in every other developed country. He wants them to have guaranteed paid maternity leave, he wants working class people to be able to go to college without being saddled with debt just like trust fund cases like Trump and his kids did. He wants veterans to have higher wages and better benefits… that’s actually how to assess how much one loves his fellow citizens not based on how much they ostentatiously profess they love for the country and how big the flag in front of their house is. This is childish. Trump literally said we should suspend the constitution so he can be put back in the White House (just cause you didn’t hear about it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen so Google it) so again, he cares about himself more than anything else. Even the constitution that conservatives like to treat like a sacred religious text when it’s convenient, Trump said “screw it”. And he has bragged many times about going to Ivy League schools and bragged about his supposed extraordinary intelligence (that he actually does regularly so if you know anything about this guy, no way you’ve never heard it) yet he went to extreme measures to hide his high school and college records. His sister got caught on a hot mic, talking about how dumb he is and how she had to cheat in order to get him into the Ivy League schools he went to. That’s who he really is and Sowell has defended him, contradicting positions he’s taken in the past. And also, I’m sorry but Sowell has defended every us wars, he’s even defended European colonialism and imperialism. Yet White conservatives don’t understand why black people don’t care for him and virtually all his fans are white conservatives 😂
As a 1996 Harvard Undergrad, all the "Short Bus" folks were at Chan School of PH. The Z List was real.
Oh come on- daddy provides an endowment and junior parties for four years and gets a prestigious degree. It is not a college it is a rich kids day care.
and then they turn right around and profess their insurmountable greatness because they "attended Harvard" when all that literally means is "I come from money".
It is a wealth investment fund that gives diplomas as a hobby.
The thing about institutions like these is that they are also a place where money and talent can rub shoulders. This gives wealthy families access to talent, but more important to society it gives talent access to capital.
That is, if it weren't for the wealthy kids attending these colleges, the talented kids would have no particular reason to want to be there. There are lots of good state schools that can provide a more or less equal education - what they _can't_ provide is the opportunity to network with very wealthy and influential families who can provide the funding and political connections they need to succeed.
Winter camp for over-priviledged children.
What do you think fraternities are
The loose affinity is called a network. There's no alliance because there's no agreement on common goals or objectives. There are just these incidental collaborations between influential entities to generate a mutually desired outcome. I learned that from Washington Week PBS on UA-cam.
I learned it from George Carlin.
Just to be clear, Simon's dad has always done very well for himself. He has held many high-level positions at the NYT, one of the highest-paying newspapers in the United States (and probably the world) and has had books published since the 1980s. His wife is also at the NYT. He has also been an executive producer on "Succession" and "Veep." The Simon family might not be enormously wealthy but it's likely that no one in this comment section will ever enjoy a similar bank account.
Not super wealthy but as Patrician clan, they have the support of more wealthy clans.......
The way he made it seem oh my dad was a theather critic and I went to a 70,000 high school I assumed he was old money. Nobody cares if you’re rich just admit it
@@raymondsmith9886 He did. He said he was privileged and went to an exclusive prep school.
Hey Neil, Shut Up! Let your guest talk!
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”
― Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
This right here.
Then you would be equally stupid
I think the key to the continue focus on “weight and convolutions” of one’s brain, is what it may bring to the evolutionary tract of man kind, that may one day end the seemingly inevitable fact that people of the same potential will always be relegated to work in cotton fields and sweatshops. But, pseudo intellectualism will always win out over the truth. We must learn from the pyramids, not become them.
What a perfect quote!!! Just got my next SJ Gould read selected for me.
That is such a bullshit sentiment. A once in multiple generations talent is just assumed to obviously have existed in a cotton field because why? Because you have such a horribly biased mindset that there's no chance that a unique talent at that level would be able to thrive and grow. Diminish every obstacle to his achievement because you've decided there is a greater victim group someone, just because....
VCs / Investors choose who will win too. Doesn’t matter how good your ideas are, if they don’t want you in their club you won’t be.
This really goes for employment in general.
Yes, they seem to keep to their own. It is what the unpaid intern program was before now. Only the wealthy could afford to do the unpaid internship and the corporations hired from that pool. I believe that program was shut down, at least in part. Also why some were caught buying their kids into university. It hurts the kids the most, it just shows the parents not care about them beyond how the kid makes the parent look or that their parents have faith in their ability.
This is why you don't dumpstat Cha for Int, all you get is smart enough to understand you have no societal value, simply because people "don't like you". Nobody has ever ended up a billionaire by being smart.
Dalton almost $70,000 a year…..10,000 kids try to get in…. Less than 10% kids get in the school
and then there's Swiss private schools for the likes of Kim Jong Un
@@noomade I went to one of those private schools in England. Actually, they call them public schools, colleges, or independent schools depending on who they want to empress. And the mixture is the same as described in the video. People like me who just rocked up to take the entrance exam, and somehow got in, and those whose parents had been there, and they had been on a waiting list since before they were born. From what I know personally, they were all smart enough to do anything they wanted, even the dumb ones. A lifetime of prep schools and private tutors can mold even the biggest dullard into something competent. So, they just do what they want. That is biggest difference between regular people, and the elite, they just get to do what they want. Some want to rule the world, so they go to Oxford and study PPE, and the rest just do something else. I imagine in the States it is the same. I personally know people who work from everything from teachers, to artists, to bankers, to barristers, politicians, actors, journalists, chefs, film executives, and where they came from doesn't really predict where they end up. Like I said they just get to do what they want. If you are from an elite background, you'll always have enough help to get where you want to be. You'll fail upwards, or downwards if you want it.
@@noomade It's because it is a successful method for progression. If you can get your child into a public school, they grow up with the kind of people who later in life can give them a hand up. Also, since the UK is so classist a lot of institutions will throw out an application which doesn't mention public school, or Oxbridge. I think they see it as an investment for the future.
I've had that very same conversation with people from the outside the UK. They seem confused that a public school is not for the general public.
@@ES-qm5hr Trump says as much. That guys an idiot and he's almost 80 years old. Failed upwards, can't even go to jail for the most serious offenses in the country.
@@noomadeim sry but 10000 pounds is too heavy especially for a school kid!??
Props to Simon for acknowledging such a taboo subject publicly, this is still a not-quite-open secret and people deserve to know how the world actually (maybe?) works
I grew up blue collar but my area was a bit old school where you had blue collar and wealthy people living nearby or even in the same neighborhoods. A LOT of kids were pampered by their parents. Bought them brand new cars in high school, didn't have them work a job even in the summer, etc..... A lot of them went to top colleges. It is amazing decades later how many failed and are working blue collar jobs or lost their family fortune. When you don't teach your kids to stand on their own and face some controlled adversarial situations while they are young you doom them to failure when they are adults.
I grew up in the UK and got so sick of the class system there that I moved to Germany when I was 21. Funnily enough, my first ever girl friend was a Brit with a privileged background, Eton educated, a father with letters after his name and contacts to the highest places. I loved her, but I simply couldn't stand her friends and relatives. We parted, we both came from different worlds.
Eton is a boys school.
@@rusterkat1188 Yes, I know. But Eton is also the term used for "public educated".
wrong. The term is Public School.
@@johnwright9372 That's the problem with your types. You think that the small amount of knowledge you have encompasses the world and anything beyond that must be wrong. Eton is often used as a allegory for public school. But of course you don't know that because your education stopped when you left school.
It is horrifying that some or most of them have no clue, and this explains a lot about their intense self-focus, feeling free to make policy that has little or no basis in reality, feeling confident they can do what they want, etc., etc. Politically and financially, this is a critical topic.
I was friends with a girl whose parents were enormously wealthy. I remember lamenting to her about wanting grow up somewhere else and asked her where she would rather. She had never though about or had no ideas that their were different places outside of our suburban bubble. It shocked me. Very sad. She went to college and smoked a ton of crack to the point her face looked like it was melting.
I know more that one person who was accepting Harvard, MIT, etc, but obviously couldn't afford to go to a school like that. Instead they got amazing scholarships and attended a state college for free. The school someone went to often says way more about their family's money than it says about their abilities.
I can't speak to Harvard, but MIT moved on to needs based pay decades ago.
None of the people I know that went to MIT paid a dime if their parents made less than 70k a year (this was a decade ago, now that range is 100-140k)
@@a.k8069 even scandal mongering investigative reporters looking at athletic potential etc aknowledge that MIT don't play that - they just say, "go to Harvard and get out of my office".
@@a.k8069 MITs undergraduate population is also not very big. There is lots of "cream" at other schools, where they definitely make themselves known. Except for the dark corners of mathematics, those aptitudes, energy levels and curiosities are impossible to hide.
In Harvard, you just have to be smart enough - just, ya know, good luck being one of them lol...
"Harvard costs what your family can afford. We make sure of that. If your family's income is less than $85,000, you'll pay nothing. For families who earn between $85,000 and $150,000, the expected contribution is between zero and ten percent of your annual income."
@@a.k8069 Ok if you are poverty-stricken but anything under 150k is still not well off and they get nothing.
8:56 "Is there a true secret oligarchy at the top?"
No. They don't bother keeping it a secret any more.
I’m sure every prestigious school has this kind of program. Look at all the under achievers who received degrees from Yale etc.
Hunter Biden
@@edwardmilano4610 Was he an underachiever at the time? I don't know much about that period of his life. An easier example would have been Donald Trump, a comically stupid person and notably terrible businessman who graduated from a highly respected business school.
@@edwardmilano4610for all of hunter bidens faults (of many) at least he didn’t invade Iraq for no reason like another presidential kid
Neal there's nothing inherently wrong with privilege, it's when people deny that it gave them more opportunities or deny that it happened at all is when it's an issue.
Jack Quaid recently addressed his privilege of growing up as the son and nephew of Hollywood actors. He owned it and said yeah, that gave me a huge advantage and I would've been insane not to use that, and he has pretty successfully backed it up with his acting, enough so that I assumed his last name was just a coincidence until recently.
He's Hollywood's Good Boy
exactly, I also think nepotism is overblown, nobody's shocked when the son of a farmer becomes a farmer, they shouldn't be shocked when the son of actors becomes an actor.
I mean it's acting.
@@feandil666 What a dumb response. How is a farmer's son becoming a farmer a way of nepotism?
How is Brennan's take on privilege so limited? "oh I am gonna be a leader" It's about the access, networks and just the belief that you can go and do stuff. In Simon's case, the cultural capital that his father had was enough to get him to this very good school that gave him a start.
Yes but the vitriol towards people who were kids and didn't consciously choose to be raised in privilege is ridiculous.
EVERYONE would choose to be raised in a life of privilege if given the choice.
Neal had a chance, his dad was an MD on the Mainline. He chose a different route
@@JNJ1014 there is vitriol only towards people who insist that all their success is just hArD WoRk and the unsuccessful ones just do not work hard enough.
@@samanthab1923 it's hardly about a route. What do you have on stake? It was certainly not pulling your whole family out of poverty by attempting to be in the arts and making a living
Meanwhile Aunt Becky and Desperate Housewives lady have to go to jail lmao.
Everyone single one of them were nouveau riche. They did not understand
thats the reason the people that are that level of rich keep their mouths shut too.
They thought they could be in the big club too.
They were wrong!
@@stephendaley266 we are all in the same club of suffering but not suffering much as xyz, but abc has it all. only if I could be like ABC, in doing so xyz is so displaced their entire way of living has to be changed.
Because they bribed a crew coach. That's different (and a lot cheaper) than donating a particle accelerator. As screwed up as the system is you could at least say that the school and its students benefit from rich people "donating" tons of money in exchange for their kids getting in. I mean they get a new building or new equipment or whatever and that benefits everybody. Nobody benefited from Aunt Becky's scheme except for her doofus kid.
Always got the impression of the hyper wealthy that they're not really working together so much as agreeing as to what the general rules for engagement are.
Like laws that are bad for business in general would be bad for all of them so they would lobby against them, not because they had a evil meeting somewhere but because they operate at levels where what is good and bad for corporate interests is pretty clear.
Get government red tape out of the way, keep the poor turned on one another, try to keep the middle class comfy, and then squeeze the ever lovin shit out of people's pockets when and where they let you.
There's no way you can have this many giant fish in any size body of water without them having some form of domain or contact with one another. Banks might compete, but when some shit like a real estate market bubble pops and the citizens start goin for the torches, they sure do form ranks awfully fuckin quick in response.
Yup. And they talk of “class warfare” to try and shame the bugs. Like someone provoking someone for years and when they hit back they’re shocked, shocked. Oldest trick in the book really.
thats why im voting for trump, he will stop them
As he isn't one of them...
@@zac6499lol no….. he’s just going to direct your torches at those who don’t enrich him or at other poor communities that have nothing to do with it.
@@zac6499 That's hilarious
It's called the donor-class. If you're a big money donor to a judge, a sherrif, a US Senator, etc... when you need help, the finger goes right to the scale. If you donate to a prestigious school... that finger is made of lead.
I agree with a few comments that this is a pretty rough job of doing an interview. He never really fully lets him answer a question before he's on to something else and doesn't seem to be getting to the heart of the matter. It feels like there's a good interview somewhere in the mix but he's not finding it. It's a pretty frustrating interview overall. I hope he reads these comments because there are some points that he should maybe be paying attention to.
It's DEI for well-connected wealthy people. Affirmative action for rich kids got GW Bush into Yale, Trump into Penn, Jared Kushner into Yale, etc. They all got "gentleman's Cs"
A way to continue to inflate their sense of superiority and further the myth of meritocracy
There is no comparison between dei and rich kids.
Dei is for people who belong and can keep up but becsuze of the color of their skin are always kept out.
Try to keep up
@@RAJOHN-ke7mc I agree with you. Read my post again and understand. Try to keep up.
"It's DEI for well-connected wealthy people."
It's the exact opposite of DEI. I get what you mean, but it implies that DEI beneficiaries are undeserving.
@TheMisterGuy that's not my intention. But I like to turn things around on wingnuts, use the terms they consider slurs against them.
Neal, when you have a guy who is really giving it up, please don’t step on him in an interview. The more he talked the more interesting it was the more you interrupted the opposite happened.
I went to BU and we had the College of General Studies. We had an *entire separate associate's degree college" for dumb rich kids. And Im grateful because it kept them away from the reat of us that thought for a living. I met a lot of CGS kids and they would basically smoke weed, slip class, and get a BU degree anyway.
Case in point: mt weed dealer was a CGS kid. he never went to class bit you need a B - average to stay in BU. My friend told me he just needed to npt get an F.
Everyone I went to school with waa either top 3 in HS or foreign paying full tuition. these kids paid for iur scholarships. im glad they exist or those greedy assholes would have not given me a half scholarship
A friend of mine told me about his cousin who had obtained a 'General Studies' degree, he had nothing for disdain for that accomplishment. LOL truthfully, I was kind of jealous that it existed as a program and that I didn't know about it.
I mean, BU is an okay competitive school, but it's not top 10 or even top 20 nationally. These kids must barely have a pulse to need a separate curriculum not to flunk out.
BU is a mostly fraudulent, overpriced college. It's not exclusive, and half the admissions are Asian students who got poor grades but have a bit of money.
NYU has something similar. A lot of elite colleges do
It's not called Crayon Glue and Scissors for nothing.
Pussies with Kyle Dunnigan and Kurt Metzger is now a real podcast. I'm speechless.
Keep doing this Neal, you are the most interesting comedian on UA-cam. Yes, I know that sounds backhanded. It's not.
Agree on all counts!
7:20 “I don’t believe in conspiracy theories”. That statement right there tells me all I need to know about this man’s level of intellect. If human beings did not have a tendency to conspire, they wouldn’t have had to make it a crime. Half the adults in this country have a child-like level of naïveté.
Also I found out police departments across the United States have a unofficial Do not pull over list for rich kids allowing them to drive drunk and race cars at night.
Are you serious
@@raymondsmith9886 yep a few people on web searches also found out about it if I could find a paper trail for that,
The common equation is greed, a strong lack of care for mankind, and overblown privilege. I was in Lyford Cay eating at the Club and listening to the lady at the next table complaining about the size of the shrimp which were delicious and large. The whole community represented the above. 😮
Having worked in hospitality for the richest people on earth left me with nothing but contempt for the ultra wealthy. they. Are. FILTH.
Best line i ever heard from any one "the Ivy league is where privilege is laundered into merit."
Dude in glasses will not stop interjecting and jacking up the flow. Bro ask a question then give the guy a damn second to answer
Is this your first ever podcast?
@@Nathan-gd7xq how long have you been a potato ? You answer first
@@cwr8618 what a comeback
Must be how Claudine Gay became president. Z list of administrators
They misinterpreted her last name as a descriptor and checked off an extra box
@@jlshel42 🤣🤣🤣🤣
It’s a feudal system, people. A feudal system with plumbing, and consumer grade electronics.
SImon is a great conversationalist. Good story teller.
Elite universities and colleges are elite bc they do top level research, but to pay for that top level research, they need funding from extremely wealthy people. So, elite schools admit two classes of students, the academically gifted to help with their research and the children of rich parents to pay for that research and provide networking opportunities for the other kids.
Whoa, he looks exactly like Tig Notaro!
Do we have any pictures of them in the same room?
I was literally about to leave the same comment. He looks exactly like her!
I remember reading an article awhile back that the most common grade at one of these "top tier", supposedly exceptional universities was an A. Because, hey, when Daddy pays that much money, he doesn't want to see bad grades.
You probably mean Upper Montclair Golf Club. Montclair Golf Club is investment banker types, rich but not rich-rich. And the answer is your Scotty Cameron, forged putter. If it’s ten, fifteen years only and a gift from your Auntie Joan (you shouldn’t have to ask) that is a plus.
It’s all just another good old boy’s network, same as you’d see in any backwoods small town, just with vastly more money, access, & influence. Basically, it’s the goodest boy’s network.
But i thought affirmative action was the reason the most qualified candidates cant into ivy keague schools... /s
That’s the real affirmative action
Everyone convinces themselves the horrible things they’re doing is correct, even when murdering millions of people they’re sure emotionally it’s for “the greater good” even as they know intellectually it’s to give them the power and wealth they crave. It’s of the utmost importance that they dehumanise “those people”. They must not conspire to make it happen
@@samhill618 The Ivy Leagues are demon factories.
The worst part is that this system protects itself by using politics to shift the blame onto marginalized students.
It’s crazy in a world with an edit button ppl still leave messages like yours
Between this and his Family Trips episode I realize I have been sleeping on Simon Rich. Guy is an amazing storyteller.
This was fascinating. So much of this seems so obvious but i never thought about it.
I shall download this full episode. Way to draw me in Neal!
I went to Washington University in St Louis which is also a rich kid school. They definitely had separate curriculum for DEI and dumb rich kids.
Simon is such a clever and brilliant speaker, no wonder he was part of a writing cast that could come up and execute sketches in just one week
Check out "The Power Elite" by C. Wright Mills.
5:30 Some of it is pedigree. It stands to reason that sometimes the kids inherit the parents’ intelligence.
Not always, but sometimes it does happen.
The host interrupts too much. The guy is in mid sentence about to say something interesting and this guy just talks all over him and we're off on another tangent. Also, the "I don't believe in conspiracies" blather is really midwit.
The Pareto principal is universal
"If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality."
― Stephen Hawking, 2015 Reddit AMA
Thanks for putting this in. He is right. This has been somewhat predicted for some time. Including as theme in fantasy and sci-if novels.
Havent seen this channel before but this guy is a really good guest, good job
So this dude Dad, could make or break major new york broadway shows and Neal is just like I dont care he just wrote for the NY'er. Love how comedians just hate critics.
Zuckerberg was in the middle. A highly intelligent kid who got into Harvard, did not join a final club, but joined the fraternity AEPi. Among our alumni brothers, he is one of the most successful.
wasn't it that he didn't get accepted to the final club he wanted, the porc?
One of the most successful? Who tf beat him?!
@@ScroogeyTheGod
Bill Gates !
The Harvard president was on that list.
Oh really she comes from a rich prominent family?
So glad i clicked on this video
Imagine listening to this after we see affirmative action tossed out as discrimination. God forbid a rich person actually has to earn something and all the while other rich people are concerned about the actually smart scholarship kids who may take their spot. Just disgusting.
The hardest part of being a Harvard graduate is not telling everyone you’re a Harvard graduate.
“You don’t need a formal conspiracy when interests align.”
He is right, Zuck and others are successful because he is somewhere in between and good at everything. He isn’t a genius but can assemble genius very well.
Zuck is definitely smart, but not a certified Genius. He came from a top 5% family. Plus some luck. Those combined are why he's so rich. Basically, as your wealth goes down, you need to be smarter and smarter to have the same outcome. Along with some random other factors, like some industries are more hostile to women, or have racists. In those sectors, you need to be a notch smarter or harder working again.
Zuckerberg was in math 55a freshman year... so he was doing graduate level mathematics first semester.
@@DJjakedrake I am not saying he is dumb, he is very brilliant but his super power is probably assembling people.
There was MySpace before Facebook how smart is he really
Yeah, getting into Math 55 means that you are brilliant. People can get good education everywhere, but I would love to see all these people claiming that Zuck is not that smart try to take that class.
I figured out what family he's from within 15 seconds.
It's called "A conspiracy of one". People with an interest in.... power/money/politics, gravitate toward each other and work with each other to increase their individual chances of succeeding at their chosen interest.
Banality of evil. Which is just to say that maybe rich people should have a sense of when they're doing things for rational reasons, and of when they're doing things because some guy, who they get the friendship fuzzies around because they share a hair color and taste in watches, recommended a course of action.
Of course, non-wealthy people do this stuff, too, with similarly disastrous effects in aggregate.
I spent a few years among VERY high-end lawyers, including those from Harvard Law. I was seriously underwhelmed. You could tell they were smart, but then they would fall for and believe the silliest things - especially if those things were advanced by another "high-status" person. It very much was like they were in their own little make-believe world where they were the only people who knew anything.
I like how Simon acknowledged his privilege and was very honest about the world he encountered at Harvard, but he's also done well with what he was given... He's a very talented writer -- wrote for SNL, has written books of short stories, etc. He's very funny off the cuff, too. (This was a more serious conversation, though.)
There also, at least at Yale and Princeton, some bright and rich students at Ivy schools. I know I became friends some (and a legacy at Columbia, not so bright). And I grew up relatively poor in theSo. Bronx and did not go to an Ivy.
New material/source, very interesting, well done interview indeed!
Privilege refers to systems of power that benefit you. It has nothing to do with your intention. 2:05
seriously. Neal is typically on point, but that was a bizarre response to a factual description of what privilege looks like.
Sounds like yall are in denial 😂
7:33 for the record Mark Zuckerberg grew up rich (not as rich as some of the top families), but Zuckerberg's dad was a Dentist and mother was a psychiatrist, he attended 'Phillips Exeter Academy' an "Ivy Feeder School", and started programing small apps from an early age.
So he is on the rich side of that quadrant (rich kid, but average).
This is fascinating. And there are so many parallels in the sport world. It's amazing how alike we are even in the various silos
At my state university, the students on athletic scholarships were given a list of teachers who would pass them & give them good grades. So, it happens at different levels. Rich students don't need financial aid, so they get a pass. If the school wants top athletes, these students get an easy ride. Frankly, I don't see the difference. Those of us who have to work hard for our grades, usually keep this work ethic once we leave college & achieve success in life.
@@mtngrl5859The difference is that student athletes actually have something inherent to themselves to offer. If you don't like that, then maybe we should end the farce that North American sports leagues continue to support by having minimum age limits and do what Europe does with the Academy system where their schooling and training are taken over by their clubs. Nepo babies have nothing but their parents' money to offer. They literally can sit on a couch for 18 years and get bought into university.
And not all student athletes are dumb. Most of them aren't.
Great video! Boosting for the algorithm.
This was fascinating.
IsHarvard watching this? I hope so. Pathetic and not surprising. Good interview Neal!
Re that loose affiliation of powerful people... George Carlin nailed it when he said "You don't need a formal conspiracy when interests converge. They went to the same universities and fraternities, they're on the same boards of directors, they're in the same country clubs..." you get the idea.
This is the makings of a book I'd want to read.
There's no need for conspiracy when we already have shared perverse incentives.
I studied maths and physics in one of the best college in Ireland. There was one Chinese girl that once sent me her homework to help out and I shit you not.. those were the easiest "primary school tier" questions I have ever seen.. that's how I discovered that the rich Chinese kids have special degrees that are significantly easier but far more expensive compared to normal university degrees
Privilege in an of it self is not bad. Don't let extremist redefine the word. People do need to acknowledge or recognise their privilege!!
Not realizing the privilege of just being born smart is pretty funny. Hard work or being a decent person are probably much more worthy attributes to praise.. the single mom working multiple jobs and taking night class is much more impressive to me
Her being a single mom contradicts your point. Since the majority of single mom aren't widows or divorcees but impulsive women who sleep with random men without thinking of concequences.
@@nizoladehomu382 you have not contradicted hard work. A dictator’s persistent hard work would be a better example
Haha. Yes that makes more sense.
There are other back doors into Harvard. For instance, anyone the Episcopal monastery on Memorial Drive on the Charles River sends to Harvard Divinity School is automatically enrolled. And while I was staying there for a one week retreat back in the ‘80s some of the lay brothers admitted to me that the only reason they joined the Cowley Fathers was so they could get a free ride through their divinity school. And they can afford the tuition because they just renovated their Ralph Adams Cram designed gothic chapel for $18 million.
Did they transfer out of the divinity school…
@@raymondsmith9886 No, because their goal was to be ordained as Episcopalian priests, although curiously, none of them were sent to the nearby Episcopal divinity school, although it belonged to the same theological consortium, so they probably took at least a couple of courses over there as well. The Episcopal Church is the only protestant church in the United States which has celibates living in monasteries and convents. Harvard Divinity is really Unitarian, although of course people from other churches go there as well. I found them kind of off-putting and never returned after my one week vocations inquiry retreat. In any event, the Episcopal Church USA is a dying religion so far as I could tell, as is their sister church the Anglican Church of Canada.
I grew up about 1/4 mile from Harvard. I made a small fortune selling Chicken and Beef Bullion packaged as Hashish to Harvard Students. You want Blond or Black? You can always tell someone from Harvard, you just can't tell them much.
I see in the Joe Rogan era and interview consists of introducing a guest and then not letting them get a word in. At least Joe Rogan is stoned, what's this narcissists excuse?
Wow this is raw
The whole Ivy League thing has bothered me for awhile for a number of reasons.
One thing we hear is "they get the best professors". Best at what? Some are, definitely, hired for their research ability. Do you think that Einstein, Bohr, or Rutherford were great teachers? Maybe. Doubt that is universally the case. Maybe only if you were near their intellectual level. And even if you have a 1600 SAT, you aren't necessarily at that level. So, best at what?
Okay, what, exactly are they teaching at Yale, that makes it superior to MSU or Texas? If they have "secrets" about, say, economics, and I were running another serious university, I'd be putting one of my Phds on sabbatical to go take that course and come back and share it with my school. Heck, I'm pretty sure a number of the professors at "regular" universities are already alumni at Ivy League schools. What, do they sign a NDA? "We're going to teach you the way economics REALLY work here at Princeton, but if you go out an teach it at OSU, we will sue you for that." None of that makes any sense.
Perhaps they start with more (certainly not all) of the 1600 SATs, but is the school itself better? Only thing I'm sure they are "better" at is giving the students connections. It is about connections, the rest sounds like self-promotion.
The Finals Clubs kids are ruling the world. “It’s not what you know …”
From my ivy league days, "male and pale" was an unspoken dividing line
Question did he ask for the Rachel maddow haircut
you guys have way to much faith in humanity lol
RFK Jr failed out of highschool and still got into Harvard.
Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai talks about this often. People don’t realize RFK Jr is dumb and he barely graduated law school too.
@@xijingpoopoo6792 "People don’t realize RFK Jr is dumb"
I have to believe this is because most of us hadn't really heard of him until recently.
Someone told me often times people attend a university like Harvard not just for the education but the doors attendance to that university opens. The fact that the Z list exists does not shock me, however, them and the others that enter as a result of influence be it money or notoriety and fame take up valuable slots that some brilliant individuals would benefit. But Benjamin Franklin said it best of Harvard grads, " I reflected in my Mind on the extream Folly of those Parents, who, blind to their Childrens Dulness, and insensible of the Solidity of their Skulls, because they think their Purses can afford it, will needs send them to the Temple of Learning, where, for want of a suitable Genius, they learn little more than how to carry themselves handsomely, and enter a Room genteely, (which might as well be acquir'd at a Dancing-School,) and from whence they return, after Abundance of Trouble and Charge, as great Blockheads as ever, only more proud and self-conceited."