Sunday, May 19, 2013

Laurene Powell Jobs – Widow of Steve – Apparently Doesn’t Know Her Place

Is Not Using Her Vast Inherited Fortune to Push Tax Cuts or Anti-Government Agenda

The death of Apple founder Steve Jobs has left his widow a very wealthy person.  She is now estimated to be the ninth wealthiest woman in the world, (although why these statistics should be divided by gender is a mystery).  So as a multi-billionaire doesn’t everyone expect her to use her vast fortune to rail against high taxes on wealthy people, and argue for electing a government that will let her and every other multi-billionaire gain even more money and escape the tyranny of a Federal government that limits people like her to only a few billions?

Maybe she is doing this, after all she has not set up a foundation and has not engaged in publically disclosed large donations.

Ms. Jobs - Actually wants to help people with her vast inherited fortune
What a traitor to her fellow billionaires

While some people said Ms. Powell Jobs should have started a foundation in Mr. Jobs’s name after his death, she did not, nor has she increased her public giving.

But no, Ms. Jobs seems to be the kind of person that apparently thinks she should actually help people with her time and money.  And she wants to do it quietly, in her own way.

she has redoubled her commitment to Emerson Collective, the organization she formed about a decade ago to make grants and investments in education initiatives and, more recently, other areas.

And she has done a lot without any publicity.

“It’s not about getting any public recognition for her giving, it’s to help touch and transform individual lives,” said Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, a philanthropist and lecturer on philanthropy at Stanford who has been close friends with Ms. Powell Jobs for two decades. She is also the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer in Silicon Valley and the wife of Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist.

“If you total up in your mind all of the philanthropic investments that Laurene has made that the public knows about,” she said, “that is probably a fraction of 1 percent of what she actually does, and that’s the most I can say.”


So great Ms. Jobs, go right ahead, do things the way you want to do them.  And thanks for not using your billions to fight government support for education, clean air and water, decent housing, good medical care and the like.  And the fact that this must infuriate people like the Koch Brothers and their ilk, well for us that’s just icing on the cake.

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