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Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

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Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

#311

Post by fanzhang »

_m8fo wrote: post #84

Everytime I see these types of articles I wonder if we're still in feudalism. Should we really be celebrating that a single individual is worth more than hundreds of millions of people[1]? I dunno, it seems dystopian , like we're enslaved to the system. [1] https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/...

Thought experiment: if you could destroy half of Bezo's wealth with the push of a button, would you do it? (Not dollars, but actual wealth -- imagine he has thousands of houses and you are allowed to legally demolish them with the push of a button).

It would reduce inequality, and increase everyone else's relative economic standing, and probably make many people feel better in comparison.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

#312

Post by afterburner »

fanzhang wrote: post #311
_m8fo wrote: post #84

Everytime I see these types of articles I wonder if we're still in feudalism. Should we really be celebrating that a single individual is worth more than hundreds of millions of people[1]? I dunno, it seems dystopian , like we're enslaved to the system. [1] https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/...

Thought experiment: if you could destroy half of Bezo's wealth with the push of a button, would you do it? (Not dollars, but actual wealth -- imagine he has thousands of houses and you are allowed to legally demolish them with the push of a button). It would reduce inequality, and increase everyone else's relative economic standing, and probably make many people feel better in comparison.

Why destroy? Why not tax it and use it?

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

#313

Post by iamnotlarry »

visarga wrote: post #289
mjfl wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The terrifying part is someone with a completely un-nuanced understanding of Jeff Bezo's wealth going around saying "Hey! This man committed violence against me! He committed violence against you too!" when the violence was selling them an Amazon echo at a cheap price, or just being richer than them. What happens when they reach a consensus that Bezos committed violence against them? History tells me very clearly (se…

> when the violence was selling them an Amazon echo at a cheap price How about when the violence was selling under the normal market value undermining competition, then remaining the only vendor. Also replacing employees with robots. So in the end, people who would have had a job lost it, no matter if they work directly for Amazon or for the competition. It's not violence to take people's jobs, but in a society with…

Selling under normal market value is not an act of violence.

Using robots instead of human employees is not an act of violence.

You have a very strange world view. Are your clothes hand-stitched? Was the electronic device you used for your post painstakingly constructed by hand? Do you think it is fair for some things to be automated but not others?

Perhaps you think that it was bad to selectively cultivate a variety of wheat that could yield more tons of food per acre? Or maybe you think it is just wrong for a farmer to use a tractor? Should they water a hundred acre field by hand with 1 gallon buckets? That would mean more jobs!

What is your opinion of all these auto-mechanics who have displaced stable hands? Should cities use thousands of laborers to spin manual generators to feed individual street lights? Modern power plants are taking peoples' jobs.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

#314

Post by thinkling »

puranjay wrote: post #304
_m8fo wrote: post #84

Everytime I see these types of articles I wonder if we're still in feudalism. Should we really be celebrating that a single individual is worth more than hundreds of millions of people[1]? I dunno, it seems dystopian , like we're enslaved to the system. [1] https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/...

It boggles my mind to think that a single individual is worth more than entire countries.

You're confusing capital with annual income. You can't buy a country for the value that it produces in a year.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

#315

Post by astrodust »

samstave wrote: post #128
astrodust wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you're embezzling money the last thing you want is to reveal enough information about your stash to show up on these lists. Saddam Hussein obviously had tons of liquid assets but the totality of them was never truly known. It was all squirreled away, and likely stolen by the caretakers when his regime imploded and the threat of retribution was removed. How much did Pablo Esbobar have at his peak? We can only gue…

in the /r/conspiracy realm - it is widely believed that the reason for Gaddafi's execution was to go after the billions he had - and to take him down. The idea is that the Benghazi fiasco was let loose by the state dept so that HRC could loot Libya... its not provable - but the fact is that Gaddafi was one of the worlds richest ppl - and the rumor is that HRC and cabal stole all his loot. He was worth a reportable 70…

"I'm not a conspiracy nut but..."

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

#316

Post by astrodust »

samstave wrote: post #179
openasocket wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but this is just crazy. So, in your scenario, HRC wants Gaddafi's money. So she orchestrates an attack on a US embassy nearly a year after he died, as a false flag operation. And then we sent people in get the money. Of course, officially we didn't send anyone in Libya in response to the attacks except some more marines to guard the embassy, so this group that went in to get th…

OK, first, I am not trolling - and I didn't state that this was my belief per-se... I do find all the Benghazi BS to be super weird - but thats just me without all the facts... However, it is a documentable fact that Gaddafi may have been the richest documentable person (clearly we are ignoring the Rothschilds etc...) in the world... He had vast assets and liquid cash all over the place. This is known - so do not acc…

> now, I shall admit my ignorance...

You've already demonstrated it in spades.

When something seems odd, maybe you don't have all the facts that would instead paint a much better picture. You're like someone with two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle who's convinced it's something perverted but really it's just a fruit bowl.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

#317

Post by astrodust »

openasocket wrote: post #202
samstave wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, first, I am not trolling - and I didn't state that this was my belief per-se... I do find all the Benghazi BS to be super weird - but thats just me without all the facts... However, it is a documentable fact that Gaddafi may have been the richest documentable person (clearly we are ignoring the Rothschilds etc...) in the world... He had vast assets and liquid cash all over the place. This is known - so do not acc…

I'd imagine a lot of his liquid assets were seized by militants. From some googling, it seems some portion of his wealth was in a bunch of real estate he owned. I imagine those have also been seized, those that weren't destroyed. But the most part his wealth was invested in several western countries. Per http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/21/world/la-fg-kadafi-m... that money has been seized by the governments in q…

People that are very good at hiding money for the ludicrously and criminally rich are also, not surprisingly, very good at making money disappear.

If your biggest client just got killed in a coup do you really think you'd go through a lot of trouble to track down his various relatives as they're being systematically captured and/or executed by the uprising? No, you'd quietly wrap up all those trusts and funnel the money to safer places, like the bank accounts of yourself and people you trust.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

#318

Post by iamnotlarry »

milesrout wrote: post #249
zvpxdlk wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> any less intelligent or hard working Not necessarily true. Luck plays a big role in things like this but Bezos is clearly in the elite when it comes to effective professionals.

Bezos is effective because his company engages in illegal anti-competitive practices. Amazon either breaks even or loses money, and the reason is because they have incredibly low prices. Why do they have incredibly low prices? Because they can, because they have the venture capital, and because others can't compete with those prices without that venture capital. We're quickly reaching the point where without venture…

You can open a hair salon without venture capital.

You can start a tech consulting company without venture capital.

You can start a construction company, a law practice, an auto repair shop, or a dental practice without venture capital.

Oh, you mean that you can't build a multi-billion dollar company overnight without venture capital?

Thank you for your insight.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

#319

Post by astrodust »

samstave wrote: post #184
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you recognize that this is just nutjob conspiracy nonsense, then yeah... I guess it's entertaining?

Cool - thanks - so rather than provide any refuting evidence to something I stated was a RUMOR, you post this drivel. So - if you are so informed, please update me.

Don't spread unfounded, crackpot rumors. Thanks.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person

#320

Post by astrodust »

coredog64 wrote: post #288
astrodust wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle isn't going to suffer a fresh-water shortage any time soon, either.

You would think, but just because it frequently rains doesn't mean it is all captured and can be treated for use. In the late 80s there were water shortages in King County.

There's a wide gulf between what can be captured and what is being captured.

I guarantee you anyone with a roof and a rain barrel is not hurting for water for their plants.

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