Rarified Air and "Pulling and Helmsley"

In 2007, Leona Helmsley passed away. She has left an estate worth about $5.2 billion. About $52 million is going to various relatives.

It is what is happening to the remainder that is creating both amusement and outrage. There is the $12 million going to her white Maltese named Trouble, which the court recently reduced to $2 million saying that amount was more than sufficient for the caring and pampering of Trouble. The $10 million is being added to the remainder of her estate, approximately $5.15 billion going into the Leona and Harry Hemsley Charitable Trust. The purpose of the Trust is to support the care and welfare of dogs. That’s right reader, dogs.

How the money will be used to provide for the welfare of the dogs on the greater New York City area is unclear, but the dogs will receive some type of quality care while people live a the streets and go hungry. With an annual pool of funds between $180 to 210 million a large number of people are going to be enjoying some large salaries to help pamper and train the dogs of New York City and give them a better quality of life than a good number of their human neighbors.

People should be free to donate and give their money away as they wish, but it does not mean I should like their choices. Just as John Thain the former CEO of Merrill Lynch did not get it, neither did Leona Helmsley. She is an example of people who live in such rarified air that they are blind to the reality around them. We need fewer people in this world who are “pulling a Thain” or “pulling a Helmsley.”