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Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

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Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#81

Post by mudil »

nostromo wrote: post #29
Endama wrote: post #15

I feel that America is in the midst of a new gilded age; instead of Standard Oil, we have Amazon. Like the late 1920s, we saw losses in purchasing power of the average American, the collection of wealth among the top 1%, and disruption of our civic spaces as a result. I think the thing that many Americans aren't aware of was just how violent that time in US history was[1]. The US economy isn't just about how comforta…

I think Bezos is a bad argument for us being in a new guilded age. When you look at Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford, and perhaps even Gates, they had near total control over some aspect of the American Economy. And they used that control to make incredible profits. Amazon is trying to do the same, but they haven't done so yet. Their retail business is not wildly profitable (if at all). They haven't monopolized online ret…

I agree. In terms of market dominance, Google is a far bigger monopoly. It dominates search, ads, and internet overall.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#82

Post by gnarcoregrizz »

Wow. Since Amazon's IPO in 1997 (21 years ago), that's like earning $227/sec, $13k/min, $817k/hr, $19m/day, 7.2b/year, and, 150b/21 years. To put it differently, you could either hire jeff bezos for a year, or 60k "highly" paid software engineers. He's richer than God. (yes I know these comparisons are useless since it's based on valuation based on a single point in time, but it does give it more perspective)

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#83

Post by conanbatt »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #68

That's crazy. Let's say the average home price in the U.S. is $200K. If this was cash, he could buy 750,000 houses. There's about 250 million people over 18 in the U.S. so Bezos could buy a house for roughly 1 in every 330 adults in the U.S. That's just unfathomable.

He wouldn't be able to do it because houses dont materialize with the creation or burning of money.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#84

Post by rich-w-big-ego »

aphextron wrote: post #49
Endama wrote: post #15

I feel that America is in the midst of a new gilded age; instead of Standard Oil, we have Amazon. Like the late 1920s, we saw losses in purchasing power of the average American, the collection of wealth among the top 1%, and disruption of our civic spaces as a result. I think the thing that many Americans aren't aware of was just how violent that time in US history was[1]. The US economy isn't just about how comforta…

Except we actually had a functioning federal government during the last gilded age, so we ended up with things like the Sherman Antitrust Act, and eventually the New Deal. I doubt we'll be so lucky this time around. Things are about to get absolutely brutal for the 90%.

[dead]

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#85

Post by isostatic »

elif wrote: post #27
sandworm101 wrote: post #6

Putin tops him. At these levels the dollar value is not a good measure. Bezos owns shares. If he started selling them their value would quickly drop. Monarchs (Putin) are different. They own things outright, or have such influence that they effectively own things that are legally in other people's names. The Saudi royal house has more wealth under their king's control, although not all in his name. What is scary is t…

can you please cite putin's monarchic ascendancy? i'm having trouble sourcing even the premise of your claim...

He's been in sole control of Russia for 18 years

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#86

Post by ryanmercer »

gnarcoregrizz wrote: post #82

Wow. Since Amazon's IPO in 1997 (21 years ago), that's like earning $227/sec, $13k/min, $817k/hr, $19m/day, 7.2b/year, and, 150b/21 years. To put it differently, you could either hire jeff bezos for a year, or 60k "highly" paid software engineers. He's richer than God. (yes I know these comparisons are useless since it's based on valuation based on a single point in time, but it does give it more perspective)

I was like "wait, that doesn't sound right". Nope. Nope it's right, it would average out to $226.49 a second if an even 21 years heh.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#87

Post by Engineering-MD »

sandworm101 wrote: post #6

Putin tops him. At these levels the dollar value is not a good measure. Bezos owns shares. If he started selling them their value would quickly drop. Monarchs (Putin) are different. They own things outright, or have such influence that they effectively own things that are legally in other people's names. The Saudi royal house has more wealth under their king's control, although not all in his name. What is scary is t…

Interesting idea for a measurement! That amount of money can certainly buy an army, but doesn’t account for equipment, logistics etc. Comparing it directly to military expenditure by states is interesting [1,2]:

If spent over a single year it would be 3rd highest expenditure (second is China with 150-228 billion)

Could fund a military the same as France or Britain for 3 years

Equals the combined spend of Britain France and Germany over 1 year.

Could fund Greek or Swiss army for 30 years

Or Venezuela for 144 years

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_militar... [2] https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/1_Data%20for%20all...

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#88

Post by BigChiefSmokem »

CamTin wrote: post #76
whack wrote: post #8

> "Gates would have had a net worth of more than $150 billion if he’d held onto assets that he’s given away, largely to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation." Sorry Bezos, you've still got some catching up to do. Lifetime earnings are what really count, even if you give it all away to charity.

Why not simply avoid making billions so you don't have to give it all away to assuage your guilt and come out close to neutral?

Influence.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#89

Post by amelius »

CamTin wrote: post #76
whack wrote: post #8

> "Gates would have had a net worth of more than $150 billion if he’d held onto assets that he’s given away, largely to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation." Sorry Bezos, you've still got some catching up to do. Lifetime earnings are what really count, even if you give it all away to charity.

Why not simply avoid making billions so you don't have to give it all away to assuage your guilt and come out close to neutral?

> Why not simply avoid making billions so you don't have to give it all away to assuage your guilt and come out close to neutral?

Because someone else will be making billions ... over your back.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#90

Post by jacobush »

hugh4life wrote: post #54
godelmachine wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You spoke my mind. For one, Rockefeller grew rich quickly coz there wasn’t as much regulation as compared to what Bezos had to face. On the other hand, Rockefeller wasn’t in the Internet age and Bezos banker on the exponential rise of internet. I am sure there are many more variables.

"For one, Rockefeller grew rich quickly coz there wasn’t as much regulation as compared to what Bezos had to face." Eh, Bezos got rich off of not having to pay state sales taxes while his brick and mortar competitors did. But AWS makes up for that IMO.

Wait what? Makes up for it why? It's not like you couldn't virtualised servers elsewhere.
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