Recently American venture capitalist Tom Perkins wrote to The Wall Street Journal complaining about the so-called “progressive war on the 1%”, suggesting the US was on the road to an anti-rich “Kristallnacht”.

Comparing public criticism of bankers with Nazi persecution of the Jews is really dumb. Back in 2010, CEO Stephen Schwarzman made an equally idiotic parallel when he declared that proposals to eliminate tax loopholes for hedge funds were “like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939” (Wall Street Journal).

These rich but stupid people are listened to by politicians because politicians need their money. As Matthew Yglesias said on Slate.com, “As the people who benefit from the status quo, they’re hardly best placed to sort out the world’s problems”. This movement is about getting people like Mr. Perkins to pay a reasonable amount of tax (maybe unfairly I suspect him of using tax lawyers to his own good purposes) and, by the way, to admit that “he didn’t do it all by himself”.

Message to Mr. Perkins: try doing something for other people – you may begin to feel better about yourself.