Business
Column: Clarence Thomas and the bottomless self-pity of the upper classes
Articles asking us to feel sympathy for families barely scraping by on healthy six-figure incomes may be staples of the financial press, but it’s rare that they come packaged as real-world case studies attached to flesh-and-blood individuals.
But that’s what happened just before Christmas, when law professor Steven Calabresi defended Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ shadowy financial relationships with a passel of conservative billionaires by explaining that Thomas simply was trying to avoid the difficulty of surviving on his government salary of $285,400 a year.
“If Congress had adjusted for inflation the salary that Supreme Court justices made in 1969 at the end of the Warren Court, Justice Thomas would be being paid $500,000 a year,” Calabresi wrote, “and he would not need to rely as much as he has on gifts from wealthy friends.”
That’s a novel definition of “neediness”: Calabresi was saying that Thomas had no choice but to create an ethical quandary for himself by accepting gifts from “friends,” some of whom have interests directly or indirectly connected with cases before the Supreme Court and on which Thomas has ruled.
If Congress had adjusted for inflation the salary that Supreme Court justices made in 1969…, Justice Thomas would be being paid $500,000 a year, and he would not need to rely as much as he has on gifts from wealthy friends.
— Steven Calabresi, Reason Magazine
Given these ethical issues, Calabresi’s argument attracted some sarcasm. University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos interpreted its gist as: “It’s just fundamentally unreasonable to expect a SCOTUS justice to scrape along on nearly $300K per year in salary, without expecting that he’ll accept a petit cadeau or thirty, from billionaires who just can’t stand the sight of so much human suffering.”
Still, it’s useful to view the argument in the context of our never-ending debate about income and wealth in America. The debate regularly generates articles purporting to explain how outwardly wealthy families can’t make ends meet on income even as high as $500,000.
There was a noticeable surge in the genre in late 2020, when then-presidential candidate Joe Biden said he would guarantee no tax increases for households collecting less than $400,000. His definition of that income as the threshold of “wealthy” elicited instant pushback from writers arguing that it was no such thing.
As I’ve pointed out before, accounts of the penuriousness of life on such an income invariably involve financial legerdemain. The expense budgets published with these articles generally place the subject households in the costliest neighborhoods in the country, such as in San Francisco or Manhattan.
They also describe as necessary or unavoidable expenses many items that most ordinary families would consider luxuries. An article tied to Biden’s $400,000 promise, for instance, showed how its hypothetical family with that much income ended the year with only $34 on hand to cover “miscellaneous” expenses.
Along the way, however, the emblematic couple (two lawyers with two kids) paid $39,000 into their 401(k) retirement plans, $18,000 into 529 savings plans for college, and more than $100,000 on the mortgage and property taxes on their $2-million home. Also, food with “regular food delivery,” life insurance, weekend getaways, clothes and personal care products.
Calabresi’s hand-wringing on Thomas’ behalf also engages in sleight of hand. He doesn’t mention that Thomas’ wife, Ginni, has her own career as a lawyer and consultant, though her income is unknown. (Thomas listed her employment on his most recent financial disclosure statement, but not her salary and benefits.)
Nor does Calabresi acknowledge that much of the gifting from wealthy friends on which Thomas purportedly “needs to rely” has had nothing to do with meeting the rigors of daily life as the average person would imagine them.
As ProPublica reported, they included “at least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas; 26 private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, typically perched in the skybox; two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast.”
To Calabresi, the questioning of this largess by the “left wing” is “sickening and unfair,” since in his view Thomas is “the best and most incorruptible Supreme Court justice in U.S. history.” Your mileage may vary; the overall tone of Calabresi’s piece is reminiscent of the line, “Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life,” uttered repeatedly in the movie “The Manchurian Candidate.”
It’s worth noting that in the movie, the line is spoken by soldiers who were brainwashed at a North Korean prison camp. Just saying.
Calabresi benchmarked Thomas’ salary against those of law school deans or young lawyers with sterling credentials such as former Supreme Court clerks, which he placed at about $500,000 a year. But discussions turning on the relative pay of various jobs and professions always have an otherworldly, even absurd, feel.
In part that’s because it’s harder than you might think to compare the work of a Supreme Court justice to that of a law school dean — not to mention comparing the work of a justice to that of a merchandise picker in an Amazon warehouse.
As Campos observes, Supreme Court justices have lifetime sinecures (only one has ever been removed through impeachment), a lifetime pension at full pay after retirement, a huge professional bureaucracy to lean on, an annual three-month paid vacation and the “psychic benefit” of being endlessly praised for their perspicacity, wisdom and (to cite Calabresi) incorruptibility. Law school deans and lawyers can’t match those bennies.
For further perspective, the federal minimum wage has been frozen at $7.25 an hour since July 2009. In that time span, its purchasing power has fallen to $5.08. In the same period, the salary of Supreme Court justices has risen to $285,400 from $213,900, an increase of 33.4%.
That may not have quite kept up with inflation, which would have raised the justices’ pay to about $311,060 since 2009, but it’s not anything like the march backward experienced by those on the federal minimum wage.
It’s true that representatives and senators also haven’t received a pay raise since 2009, but they’re not exactly living on the minimum wage: The salaries for rank-and-file legislators is $174,000 but the majority and minority leaders of both chambers and the Senate president pro tem get $193,400 and the House speaker gets $223,500.
They also pay into and receive Social Security, have a separate pension benefit and have access to government health insurance. Anyway, they collect more than twice the median household income in America, which is about $75,000.
Occasionally some journalist will make the argument that Congress should be paid more. I’ve done it twice, in 2013 and 2019, on the argument that it might attract more candidates devoted to making government work.
But those were in the halcyon days before Capitol Hill was only partly, not entirely, dysfunctional. I wouldn’t make the same argument today, when there’s reason to doubt that a higher wage would attract anyone better than the buffoons who walk the hallways of the House of Representatives at the moment.
Indeed, a higher wage might increase the psychological distance between our elected representatives and their constituents.
Just compare how eager they were in December 2017 to enact a huge tax cut for the wealthy, which passed a GOP-controlled Congress on the nod and was promptly signed by President Trump, with the dithering over the child tax credit, an immensely successful anti-poverty program that they allowed to expire at the beginning of 2022 and is just now back on the negotiating table, with no guarantee of restoration.
That tells you that the gulf between the lawmakers and the people they supposedly represent is already too wide.
As for the other argument, that paying them and the Supreme Court justices more would reduce their incentive to take bribes, just what sort of people are we electing and appointing to office?
How much more would we have to pay Clarence Thomas to get him to stop taking free yacht voyages and private flights to private clubs from rich “friends”? Sadly, to ask the question is to answer it.
Dear Mr. Pelley:
I meant what I said in my letter last week to the 60 Minutes team: joining 60 Minutes is the honor of my career and I am grateful to be working alongside the people who have contributed to the most important television journalism brand this country has ever produced. While I’m new to 60 Minutes, I’ve devoted my career to investigative journalism and storytelling. I started this job excited to collaborate and to benefit from the wisdom and experience of the 60 Minutes veterans, with you among them. For that reason, one of the first things I did in my new role was call you to talk and invite you to dinner. It is a profound disappointment that you rejected that overture and chose ambush instead. Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt. I welcome a diversity of viewpoints and respectful debate among the team, but this was nothing of the sort. Yesterday’s performative display of hostility enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation-demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress. I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama. I am eager to work alongside those who share this goal.
Despite yesterday’s misconduct, I had hoped that in sitting down with you today we could find a path forward together. You made clear that you are not interested in such a path.
Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. (“CBS”) to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately. Enclosed is your formal termination letter.
Sincerely,
Nick Bilton
Executive Producer, 60 Minutes
The co-founder of Aspiration, Joseph Sanberg, was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Monday after defrauding investors and lenders of over $248 million.
The startup, an eco-friendly digital banking company boasting fossil fuel-free investments, carbon offsets for gas purchases, and a debit card with cash-back benefits for shopping at clean companies, was founded by Sanberg and Andrei Cherny. Cherny left the company in 2022 and has not been charged.
Sanberg, an Orange County native, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in October after being arrested in March last year. Aspiration subsequently filed for bankruptcy and liquidated all of its assets by July.
Sanberg and venture capitalist Ibrahim AlHusseini, who also faces charges, together forged a series of bank statements in order to obtain loans. From 2020 to 2021, the pair forged AlHusseini’s bank statements to show millions of dollars in assets in order to obtain millions of dollars from lenders.
Additionally, they forged a letter from their audit committee stating that $250 million in funds were available, when in reality Aspiration had less than $1 million. The amount of loans defrauded exceeded $248 million.
In 2021, Sanberg artificially inflated Aspiration’s 2021 revenue by $44 million by recruiting 27 fake customers to sign letters of intent pledging tens of thousands of dollars per month for tree planting services. Sanberg himself funded the contracts and used the inflated revenue numbers to obtain more loans.
The charges sparked an NBA investigation into salary cap allegations due to Aspiration’s connections with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer.
Ballmer personally invested $60 million in Aspiration, all of which was lost. He is now the target of a civil lawsuit alleging his participation in the scheme. Ballmer denies the allegations.
The team announced a $300-million sponsorship deal with Aspiration, and Clippers player Kawhi Leonard signed a four-year, $28-million marketing contract with the company, which reportedly performed no duties. The issue has raised concerns about how players are circumventing the NBA’s salary cap.
The team lost the $300-million sponsorship deal and an additional $20 million paid for carbon offset purchases.
Residents in the city of Monterey Park will be the first in the nation to vote on a permanent ban on data centers Tuesday.
If approved, Measure NDC would prohibit data centers within the city limits and could only be overturned by another vote.
Yard signs saying “No Data Center” in English and Chinese with images of dragons line sidewalks in the San Gabriel Valley city.
As a wave of data center opposition sweeps the country, numerous towns and counties across the U.S. have instituted temporary moratoria and other restrictions on the facilities. But only a handful have instituted indefinite bans, and just four other towns have sent related matters to the ballot.
Supporters are hoping the vote will set a precedent for the rest of the region, where residents are fighting proposals in Vernon and City of Industry.
“This is about as permanent a ban as we can get,” said Steven Kung, co-founder of the group No Data Center Monterey Park. “Winning Measure NDC would send a huge message to the rest of the San Gabriel Valley about how residents don’t want data centers.”
The ballot measure emerged from the fight against a 247,000-square-foot center proposed in 2024 by the Australian-owned investment firm HMC StratCap for a residential area in Monterey Park.
The facility would have sat less than 500 feet away from the nearest home and used three times the electricity of the 60,000-person, predominantly Asian American city.
While the developer touted the potential for jobs and tax revenue, residents expressed concerns about noise and air pollution, rising electricity rates and a potential to lower property values.
The company pulled its plans in late March following public outcry and a March 4 city council vote to extend a temporary data center moratorium and place a ban on Tuesday’s ballot.
In a letter to the city council, HMC StratCap said it would pursue a different use for the land and would not engage in a ballot measure fight.
The city council later banned data centers indefinitely, the first in California to do so, said Mayor Elizabeth Yang. But she’s still been out campaigning for the measure with all four other council members.
“If a council puts in an ordinance, a future council can reverse it too,” said Yang. “With the ballot measure, unbanning it is a lot harder because you need the entire city to vote on it.”
The measure proposes the ban “to protect air quality, drinking water resources, and public health” and “prevent impacts to electricity and water rates.”
While California places third in the country for existing data centers with about 300 facilities, it hasn’t been a hot spot in the recent AI-driven data center boom. High electricity rates, expensive land and regulatory hurdles mean that fewer, and smaller, facilities are currently planned than in Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Illinois or Arizona.
“Most of California’s data centers are small by today’s standards,” said Shaolei Ren, an engineering professor at UC Riverside who studies how to reduce the environmental impacts of data centers. “Ten years ago, they would be medium-sized, but the power demand for new AI data centers has increased a lot.”
The average operating data center demands 45 megawatts, according to the Washington Post, while the average planned one would draw 430 MW. The one proposed for Monterey Park would have required about 50 MW at peak demand.
As proposals crop up in SoCal, they’re met with fierce opposition. Montebello, El Monte and Baldwin Park have all enacted temporary moratoria, and Alhambra recently banned data centers as part of a zoning code update. City of Industry, Vernon, City of Commerce and Santa Fe Springs are moving in the other direction, trying to court developers and streamline data center approvals. Community groups are fighting that.
Outside the San Gabriel Valley, residents of Coachella and Imperial County are showing up in droves to protest local proposals.
Matthew Shaw, a volunteer with the Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development, who recently published a report on opposition to AI data centers, said a vote to ban them in Monterey Park “would lead to copycats, partially because so many groups are just opposed to any data center development at all.”
While there is no formal opposition to Measure NDC, some building trades like Ironworker Local 433 supported the Monterey Park data center when it was still live before city council. Those in the data center industry are lamenting the state of public opinion.
“These are multi-billion-dollar assets that are built by multi-trillion-dollar companies. These things will get done,” said Mehdi Paryavi, chairman of the International Data Center Authority. “My biggest problem is that our industry does not invest enough in community engagement.”
Paryavi said towns that seek to limit data centers are missing out on thousands of jobs generated by data center construction, operations and customers, as well as faster artificial intelligence speeds and better performance.
Kung said local community organizers are “looking at the empirical evidence” and seeing a ban as a win.
“We’ve never seen a city that embraces a data center and is like, ‘Look how our quality of life has increased, look how all the revenue has gone into citywide improvements,’” he said. “That just doesn’t exist.”
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