Lucky is the man who can afford to be a liberal

Today's Seattle Times profiles Internet bubblionaire Rob Glaser, who is by far the state's largest contributor to political (= liberal Democrat) causes.

Glaser declined to be interviewed for this story. But those who know him well say his giving reflects his goals of transforming mass media, improving health in the Third World and changing America's measures of progress and prosperity.
...
He has served on the board that oversees Mother Jones, a left-wing muckraking magazine often as hard on Democrats as Republicans. Four years ago, he gave $2,000 to Ralph Nader's Green Party campaign, twice what he gave to Al Gore. Glaser and Nader are friends, Cantwell said.

At Yale, Glaser's politics were "slightly to the left of Che Guevara,"

Glaser owns over 51 million shares of RealNetworks, with a current market value of about $285 million. That's not bad for a company that makes most of its money by giving away free software. Among Glaser's various homes is an estate in the gated community of The Highlands just north of Seattle with assessed value $2.1 million [it's listed on the tax rolls in his wife's name].

Mr. Glaser is entitled to spend his fortune trying to change the world into a socialist paradise where the unfair accumulation of wealth is impossible. But couldn't he at least wait to change the world until the rest of us have a chance to get our mansions too?

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 26, 2004 10:32 AM