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There’s always an ugly rich guy.

There’s always a guy – Vinod Khosla, Tom Perkins, Todd Henderson, Glenn Hubbard and Frederic Mishkin, Dick Fuld… There’s always an ugly rich guy whose greed, aggression, and general dickishness launch him straight up into the news-of-the-world stratosphere for a week or two.

This week it’s $800 an hour consultant and Harvard business school professor Benjamin Edelman, who threatened massive legal retribution against a local Chinese food merchant who overcharged him by four dollars. Now, in the long tradition of God opening a door when he closes a window, embarrassed students at Harvard have started an online campaign in honor of those precious four dollars:

Jon Staff launched a fundraising campaign called ‘Harvard Gives: $4 to Fight Hunger’, encouraging Harvard students to donate four dollars to the Greater Boston Food Bank, in response to an article on Boston.com, which publicised a dispute between Edelman and the Sichuan Garden restaurant in Woburn.

… ‘In accordance with our community values, we are calling on all Harvard students to flip the script by donating $4 to provide for for those in need’, [the campaign organizer] wrote.

[The organizer also said he hopes this campaign] will remind people that Harvard is a big, diverse place full of almost universally wonderful people behaving well.’

Margaret Soltan, December 10, 2014 4:39PM
Posted in: harvard: foreign and domestic policy

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6 Responses to “There’s always an ugly rich guy.”

  1. JND Says:

    The business school. Of course.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    JND: Beware the B-School Boys.

  3. Greg Says:

    And, of course, the gals — think U. Va and Helen of Virginia Beach.

    Now I’m imaging a whole new Iliad.

  4. Greg Says:

    Oops: imagining.

  5. janet gool Says:

    So – trying on my daily commute to come up with an appropriate limerick. This is the best I could do:
    Ben’s a smart Harvard prof,
    Endowed with a yiddishe kopf,
    Which he failed to employ,
    And thus did not enjoy,
    Some delicious Chinese food stuff.
    Now’s he’s “reached out” to the owner, whatever that means.(I was trying to find words to rhyme with “putz” but drew a blank.)
    Best,
    Janet

  6. University Diaries » The Greene Revolution Says:

    […] his wife, children and two nannies on a private jet plane to Davos for the week,” joins the storied ranks of Benjamin Edelman, Vinod Khosla, Tom Perkins, Todd Henderson, Glenn Hubbard, Frederic Mishkin, […]

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