Steve Roth was responding to the announcement by New York’s mayor of tax on second homes worth more than $5m

The phrase “tax the rich” can be “just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs”, according to the New York City billionaire Steve Roth, who said that the top 1% should be “praised and thanked”.

Speaking on his company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Roth, the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, expressed his support for fellow billionaire and the CEO of Citadel, Ken Griffin, who was singled out in the 15 April announcement by New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of the state’s first “pied-à-terre” tax on second homes valued at more than $5m. In a video, Mamdani announced the policy in front of Griffin’s penthouse, which he said was purchased for $238m.

“We are all shocked that our young mayor would pull this stunt in front of Ken’s home and single him out for ridicule,” Roth said. “This was both irresponsible and dangerous.”

Edit: Mamdani’s video that sparked this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLKZnVB4F9k

  • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    4 days ago

    He views the Rich as a separate ethnic group.

    from wiki:

    An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of humans who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Attributes that ethnicities believe to share include language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, religion, history, or social treatment.

    He’s mostly right, but that doesn’t invalidate criticisms of the Rich.

    • StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      3 days ago

      That’s like admitting they live in a completely different world. That’s what blows my mind. By implication, he’s admitting the wealthy exist in a completely separate reality. That the shadow economy is real, and that the average person is effectively a second-class citizen. It’s an acknowledgment that it is, and maybe always has been, us versus them. I’ve always said they exist in a completely different world, one that operates on different rules than the rest of us. More than just the obvious. Everything you posted, culture, norms, ancestry, history. They will never change to help you. They will always operate from a place of exploitation. It’s their culture. They made it so.

    • JcbAzPx@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      3 days ago

      I think it’s more that he views anyone not rich as not human. Only him and his rich friends are actually people and the plebeian masses should defer to them as such.

    • liuther9@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      I’ve met some people with this mindset of “i dont give a single fuk if it is not good for me”. They also tend to praise billionares and bad dictators. Makes me really curios how their brain works