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Things are looking up in Margaritaville! We know, we know, wrong Buffett--but we always think Jimmy first. Sorry, Warren. Go cry in your mountain of money.
Anyhow, one of the world's richest men but only second-most-famous Buffett is making a $4.5 billion deal with Chicago's own Uncle Money Pants, the Pritzkers. Buffett is buying a 60 percent share in the Pritzker's Marmon Holdings, Inc. Over the next five or six years, he's going to buy the rest of the company, too.
[Marmon Holdings, Inc has] a collective revenue of about $7 billion and includes business interests ranging from construction and railroad and intermodal tank cars to specialty pipes, metal fasteners, crane leasing, store fixtures and food-preparation equipment. It employs about 21,000.
Perhaps you've heard of the Pritzkers. They're famous for owning the Hyatt Hotel chain, and apparently Marmon is the lesser-known part of the empire. The family own Royal Caribbean, AmeriSuites, TransUnion, and most of the spots in the gossip/society pages of this city, even though no one cares about that stuff at all. The U of C's med school is the Pritzker School of Medicine, there's a Pritzker Architecture Prize, the Pritzker Military Library, and Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. How has no one from this family gotten a reality show yet? [Trib, Sun-Times, Business Week
We're not calling anyone here Scroogey. We're just saying they're all swimming in money.
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I'm sure they earned every penny of it
I hung out with one of the younger pritzkers in new york. they're really normal people. they just happen to be mega wealthy.
Come on Matty!
Spill the beans,or share some with us mendicants!
We are all anonymous here! Was it the corpulent J.B.P?
And I went to college with a lot of rich kids and
while some were "nice", it’s a mistake to call them normal, no matter how the powers that be
want us not to see class in a society of
increasingly richer haves and the
growing number of have nots
Their was is an economist at Princeton who wrote a report for the New York Magazine called the New Gilded Age. It was tres interesting, especially how the rich, poor lower and the middle class
defined them selves when asked.
So tell me, what do
the super rich, middle class and poor have incommon? They all see themselves as middle class. Sounds like the top is lying, and every one else is brainwashed son!
Let's just say that both of them (the younger and the older) were just regular people. It was a small party at the grand hyatt in nyc. I don't think they were "pretending" in any way. I just kind of think that once you have so much money it kind of becomes a moot point in your life and you focus on other things, like talking about girlfriends for example. All in all we just had a good time and drank a lot of champagne. No scandal or gossip to speak of.
I should have asked them to loan me a spare million if they had it though ;)
"kind of becomes a moot point in your life and you focus on other things"
Matty
You got a good head on your shoulders, but think on it a bit. Because to me that sounds
overly simplistic which is promoted by a society that teaches us to view the rich as roll models at best or at worst just like us with more money
who "we" need to defend if thier wealth is called into question on the rare occasions that it is
called into question.
Again I'm not saying they are evil, but there are clear class divides in this country even if folks wanna ignore them.
And as far as "money -becoming- a moot point", that sounds like the stuff of Alice in Wonderland and I bet the other things they "focus on" are made possible because of money
And I think the young female Prizt you are referting too is the "actress" who lives in NY
;-)
I do not think we should think less of people because they were born into rich families. It is not like they had a choice.
However, a few of the Pritzkers have done some boneheaded things lately. First, the slimy trophy-wife-seeking father of Liesel (sp?) Pritzker grabbed many millions from Liesel's fund. Liesel had to go to court to get it back. She had good reason to do so and the court fight was going her way until her father caved and paid Liesel back.
Then, J.B. "Chubby" Pritzker spent millions to try to buy--er, I mean run for--a congressional seat. Remember that "just plain folks" campaign commercial with the obviously non-athletic, portly J.B. in a Bears jersey? He was playing a pick-up football game with his family, just like Joe Sixpack. How lame. Thankfully, his campaign was dead on arrival.
Then, one of the Pritzker ladies tore down a couple vintage Lincoln Park homes and constructed a multi-lot sterile box-like monstrosity that is her home. This was a block of nice homes all of similar size. Not anymore. The rest of the people on the block have to look at this blank-walled replica of a prison. It was a selfish, "Let them eat cake" move on her part.
More recently, another one of the Pritzker ladies assailed opponents of the Childrens' Museum land grab in Grant Park as being "racists." How ridiculous. People want Grant Park to be a park, as intended by our city's founders. Yet Ms. Pritzker twisted the issue into one of race. She even got Mayor Daley on board with that theme. Thankfully, the media and the public showered the Mayor with ridicule for that race-baiting spin.
Anyway, sorry to bash the Pritzkers, because they have donated money to help our city greatly. They're not all bad, and they are not all good. Let's hope they stop making mistakes. And let's hope they continue being generous.
Ward up: Word Up! ;)
Ward up aren't you glad that every statement you make is not
held up for public scrutiny.... I know I am....
I grew up with Gigi & always seem very normal to me. I can't think of a nicer BILLIONAIRE
that would be "she always seemed normal to me"
Ward Up: You were close, it's spelled Liesl.
I presume that the lawsuit of hers & her brother's is the reason for the breakup.
The various stupid goings on of the Pritzkers is classic third generation behavior of the very rich that didn't do a damn thing to make the money.
They think they are entitled to anything & everything!
They can do no wrong!
They even believe their shit doesn't stink!
Third generation rich are the best argument ever, for massive inheritance taxes.
Ward Up: You were close, it's spelled Liesl.
I presume that the lawsuit of hers & her brother's is the reason for the breakup.
The various stupid goings on of the Pritzkers is classic third generation behavior of the very rich that didn't do a damn thing to make the money.
They think they are entitled to anything & everything!
They can do no wrong!
They even believe their shit doesn't stink!
Third generation rich are the best argument ever, for massive inheritance taxes.
Ward Up: You were close, it's spelled Liesl.
I presume that the lawsuit of hers & her brother's is the reason for the breakup.
The various stupid goings on of the Pritzkers is classic third generation behavior of the very rich that didn't do a damn thing to make the money.
They think they are entitled to anything & everything!
They can do no wrong!
They even believe their shit doesn't stink!
Third generation rich are the best argument ever, for massive inheritance taxes.
I like Liesel and Matt, they are both extremely good hearted people.
EVERY home on Orchard has been torn down except one in the past 15 years! And, what about the Crown lot accross the street? Have you even seen those cookie cutters next to the Pritzker spot? They all look like crap.
Scooter, you're just jealous. I'm sure that if YOU had been allowed the honor to have cocktails( and to drink a lot of champagne) with the Pritzker Clan,you would have after being with them- for only a few hours -understood that they're just "normal people" who just happen "to be mega wealthy regular folks too".
Therefore you would feel the need to actually defend and hold down for the Pritzker's fort after your two hour party by hailing the fact that all that loot has "become a moot point in (thier) life and ( they) focus on other things, like talking about girlfriends for example."
And of course why should any one ask what they actually do with their lives and where their money comes, for instance the prison military industrial complex.
Generally the few rich people I defend, I defend because of their work in underserved communities( not including the "Daley Community") instead of defending them after being allowed to have a few drinks with them at a party. Now excuse me while I watch the last 4th Season of the Wire episonde on DVD! Of course some of yall seem more interested in watching "Dynasty"
P.S.Yes I'm all about/for the "Death Tax", which means putting spoiled brats too work in America.
p.p.s any body else think J.B.P looks like Ralph Crandon after winning the Lotto?