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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

#91

Post by olfactory »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #10

Hardly. He’s a pauper compared to John D. Rockefeller who died in 1937. At the time of his death his assets equaled 1.5% of America’s total economic output. With a $20T GDP that would be a $300B net worth in today’s dollars or around 200% what Bezos is worth. Don’t worry. This second gilded age that we are living in is on track to ensure we have a trillionaire in short order.

Bezos will surpass that several times over in the next few years. He's added tremendous economic value which is why so many of us pay him for his many products and services.

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

#92

Post by coliveira »

untog wrote: post #71
tmpz22 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except nowadays even small local police departments have tanks and swat teams.

Small local police departments are also staffed by the 90%, though. I find it difficult to imagine an uprising against the 1% in America any time soon, but if it did happen I can absolutely imagine the police siding against the 1%.

Police forces are ideologically selected to protect the 1%. In extreme cases what you say is possible, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

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

#93

Post by throwaway37585 »

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?

Assuage your guilt?

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

#94

Post by throwaway37585 »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #74
dgacmu wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time for Bezos to endow a university and some libraries? An earlier major technical university endowed by the richest person of the time is a pretty awesome place... (he says with no bias whatsoever. :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie

I'd rather see him endow the treasury with the fucking taxes he owes.

Why? Government is one of the least effective vehicles for charity.

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

#95

Post by gnarcoregrizz »

ryanmercer wrote: post #86
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.

Soon all he'll have left to do is make a 1 click checkout for buying palaces. Oops, never mind, it's hard to counterfeit those

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

#96

Post by nickjj »

godelmachine wrote: post #23
wilsonnb2 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is an interesting way to compare wealth between time periods but I'm not sure it's the most valid method.

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.

One of those variables is likely tax rates.

Back then, federal income tax was way way lower than what it is today. At some point the highest income tax bracket was 7% but today it's 37%.

I'm not a history buff but Google says social security taxes first started in 1937. That could be potentially another 13% less taxes paid back then.

Also Google says corporate tax was hovering around 12% during the 1920s but it's upper 30%s now.

Imagine how fast you could gain wealth if the govt. only took 20% of your income instead of 50%.

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

#97

Post by unimpressive »

xkjkls wrote: post #42
dgacmu wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time for Bezos to endow a university and some libraries? An earlier major technical university endowed by the richest person of the time is a pretty awesome place... (he says with no bias whatsoever. :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie

Are universities really highly positive charitable investments in 2018? It's a very different time from when Carnegie existed.

I think the research branches of a university are much less ambiguously positive than the teaching branches. One of the things people consistently fail to grok is that community colleges of the sort that are generally fairly cheap, are cheap in large part because their mission is to make higher education accessible. Universities do not (and probably shouldn't) have that mission. Their mission is to fund original research that would otherwise go undone and record it.

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

#98

Post by sdljfslkjfdsj »

xkjkls wrote: post #43
flyGuyOnTheSly wrote: post #21

33% of that $150B came to him in 2018 alone (he started the year around $100B) and some people still claim that "we're not in a bubble".

A bubble in what though? Amazon stock?

Every single risk asset. Bonds (lowest yields in recorded history including negative sovereigns in europe), stocks (price-to-sales, price-to-ebidta, & countless other measures), art, housing prices back at nominal pre bubble highs, leverage in margin accounts, public debt, central bank balance sheets, etc. That was just from the back of my mouth. Not only is it a bubble but it's quite possibly the largest & most systemic one ever since so much risk has been shifted to the sovereign & central banking balance sheets.

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

#99

Post by olfactory »

ryanmercer wrote: post #86
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.

That's misleading though, because he's had great risk of ruin and lots of smart people have tried (Jet, Azure, etc.) to compete with him but have fallen short.

Compare Amazon to something done by government like the highways. When I order something on Amazon it nearly always arrives exactly on time as expected. Highways are always in a state of disrepair and congestion, and get worse every day.

This is not an example of why Bezos wealth should be used to build highways. Every penny of his wealth was earned by offering services in a competitive market better than the alternatives. With government infrastructure there typically are no alternatives and so nobody cares or expects much.

Bezos is not an enemy of the little guy, he's someone who has made it so much cheaper to build a startup. Remeber the days when the first $200K of fundraising would go straight to Dell for a bunch of bare metal hardware? Contrast that to AWS. He's done the same in many areas of the economy.

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

#100

Post by ericd »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #74
dgacmu wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time for Bezos to endow a university and some libraries? An earlier major technical university endowed by the richest person of the time is a pretty awesome place... (he says with no bias whatsoever. :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie

I'd rather see him endow the treasury with the fucking taxes he owes.

What taxes does he owe that he hasn't paid? I'm pretty sure the answer is "none".
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