Really? Within the US, Silicon Valley has among the greatest disparities of wealth, and it is probably the richest and fastest growing region in the country.

Basically, it depends whether the disparities come from founding Google, or being the dictator's brother.

Chile also has huge wealth disparities, but in the last twenty years the Gini coefficient stayed the same and the GDP per capita has grown 3-fold.

Thanks for bringing up the Gini coefficient, I had not heard of it before.

They're correlated, but it's hard to say which is cause and which is effect.

Well, one interesting thing about it is that it points out that such people have always been around, and in turn implies that we could learn how to deal with them online by using techniques we've developed for dealing with them offline.

To clarify, I was referring to the parent comment, not the article. I thought the article was pretty well done.

Unless you're also referring to the comment, in which case I'm baffled.

Well I apologize for my crassness and low brow jab - actually, no I don't. I guess I could have taken the time to articulate some well formed argument about the role of trolls and the underlining motivations for their actions on the net, but why waste the time?

These people are "douche bags" and I think my choice of terminology is concise and to the point. I am sorry if you have lost your sense of humor along the way and that you feel that there is no room for this language in the such a place as hacker news. Ultimately, I feel that the majority of the hacker world (not just on HN) finds a level of comfort and 'release' in the usage of such terminology - ex. Linus and his 'masturbating monkey' comment or the massive amounts of profanity widely known to be in source...

Not to attack you or your opinion, as we are all entitled, but just as you have (apparently) grown tired of low-brow language, I too have grown tired of the condescending tone of many people on here as well. Instead of taking the "holier than thou" route against my comment, how about taking your time to compose an original thought of your own in regards to THIS STORY - not my comment, an action I feel detracts from the value of HN far more than my selection of the descriptor "douche bags" to describe trolls.

I have absolutely no issue with your language. I have no issue with you commenting however you feel like commenting.

I do have an issue with that kind of comment being modded up as high it is, not because the comment has any value, but because it's crass and/or people want to say "me too".

As for me, I have posted several comments in regard to this story. If you can spend so much time composing a reply to perceived criticism, perhaps you could have spent that time composing a thoughtful comment on the story instead?

Perhaps - I wish I weren't out of hero cookies - I would give you one for sure. Perhaps even 2.

I think people tend to upmode comments which they agree with and/or short funny comments.

Uh, oh. "Affiliate marketing." I think we have our answer.

I'm suspicious. The number seems off, as does the coy pitch. But I'd be curious to hear more.

"Steve has not accessed any of his assets since his disappearance."

Interesting choice of words.

And, as we all know from TV and movies, any self respecting super-rich person stashes some of their cash in secret overseas bank accounts.

Well, if you saw bank or credit card activity that would be a big red flag that something fishy is going on.

Correct, but it's phrased as if he's alive. Which helps make it sound more fishy than it really is (not fishy at all).

Or someone stole the dead guy's wallet and decided to try the credit card.

Has anyone considered the possibility that he was funded by the Israeli government? This would be one of the smartest ways to influence the US media, to finance a genuinely charismatic investor in media companies.

Conspiracy theorizing is fun, but it's a lot easier to believe that he's just a talented investor.

Isn't the Israeli government partially funded by the U.S. government? In which case he is funded by the U.S. government, in order for the U.S. government to influence the media.

old-new story. I guess the same ending. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/5/...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell#Death

Wow. Whenever Israel comes up, it's always "Never attribute to your own ignorance what can be explained by the involvement of Mossad."

In Maxwell's case, he was working with too many different countries to be totally loyal to one in particular. He was semi-famous for publishing translations of awful hagiographies of communist dictators in the 80's (and of censoring other books as a favor to friends).

Perhaps we can compromise on "Never assume anything that affects Israeli interests happened by accident."

.ro, .il, .cn ...usa???

Oh, they definitely know it. The deadpan diss is a Times specialty.

I suppose the nice thing is that they will probably never realize they are being mocked.

Only if they take no energy to generate.

Though pancreatic cancer is usually rapidly fatal, he had an unusual form that's treatable.