Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 399 posts

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

#111

Post by ericd »

NeutronStar wrote: post #63
superfrank wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how the wealth of one person, who's wealth is mainly shares in probably the most successful company in the US right now, indicates that we are in a bubble.

The guy made 100k$ off of each of his workers while abusing them this year alone, it is fucking outrageous.

He didn't "make" it off them. This isn't from profit that he just didn't share with his workers, it's just the current market value of his stock holdings.

Which means it's paper wealth. Which means there's no way he could turn any significant fraction of that into USD or any other form of value without obliterating the value.

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

#112

Post by throwaway37585 »

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…

> losses in purchasing power of the average American

Do you have data to back that up?

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

#113

Post by olfactory »

adamnemecek wrote: post #3

The scariest part is that he's not done.

He's going to be many times over the richest person in history before long. This has been clear for a long time if you look at the rate of growth of his wealth. But it's not bad news. Bezos has an unmatched ability to create infrastructure that works well and is low cost.

E-commerce is a very competitive market and yet Amazon grows every day. Why? Because consumers trust Amazon's reviews and return policy. It's way better than what most retailers offer. The reviews are unparalleled and offer consumers tremendous power against firms that try to rip them off.

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

#114

Post by LarryDarrell »

FussyZeus wrote: post #60
aphextron wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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%.

Or the 1%. Something Rich people tend to forget is that the system of law and order we have now prevents armed uprising of the lower classes, which has a history of cropping up during very hard economic times. Not advocating, and I doubt I'd be one of them holding a pitchfork, but it is something to keep in mind.

They'll never get that far. Even when desperate the 90% are easily divided against each other.

Disease, war, some other ecological disaster... a divided and very unequal nation cannot respond to these stresses. This is what ultimately balances things, it's a shame that so many many lives will have to be destroyed in the future because we are too timid to fix the problem now.

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

#115

Post by TheLoneAdmin »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #70
0xmohit wrote: post #28

Reminds one of a couple of related posts: > When I worked at Amazon we had to run around the warehouse, bc if our pick rate fell below a certain number we stopped getting paid. There were bottles & bins full of piss at odd points, bc you were penalised for toilet breaks. A co-worker attempted suicide on-site bc of the stress Source: https://twitter.com/OwennnThomas/status/1007957414577090560 > Workers at Amazon wareh…

You'd think with all that cash Bezos could afford to pay his minions a humane rate. But he just doesn't care.

$12/hour is inhumane?

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

#116

Post by sdljfslkjfdsj »

ksec wrote: post #57

In theory, If you are a CEO, and you knew your stock is in bubble, could you have leverage it and borrow as much as you could for low rate, say $200B or more for 2%, and use that buy whatever business when the bubble burst?

LOL, no CEO's in the modern era aren't interested in buying assets or growing revenues organically. They are interested in juicing EPS from quarter to quarter. That's why 2018 is already set to be the largest in record history of stock buybacks. That means corporations c-suite execs are deciding to go to the bond market & issue debt so they can take that money & use it as an open tender in the market every single day buying back shares so EPS gets juiced (smaller denominator). Then they promptly sell stock options to this new bidder on the open market... beautiful isn't it? 2018 will also be on record as the largest insider selling year & that's no coincidence. It's just like George Carlin said "it's a big fucking club & you ain't in it"

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

#117

Post by mozumder »

FussyZeus wrote: post #60
aphextron wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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%.

Or the 1%. Something Rich people tend to forget is that the system of law and order we have now prevents armed uprising of the lower classes, which has a history of cropping up during very hard economic times. Not advocating, and I doubt I'd be one of them holding a pitchfork, but it is something to keep in mind.

[flagged]

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

#118

Post by dghughes »

tmpz22 wrote: post #65
FussyZeus wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the 1%. Something Rich people tend to forget is that the system of law and order we have now prevents armed uprising of the lower classes, which has a history of cropping up during very hard economic times. Not advocating, and I doubt I'd be one of them holding a pitchfork, but it is something to keep in mind.

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

Anytime US police are shown on TV it's staggering to see how many are of them are obese. How can these police officers function in their jobs being so large? There must be yearly fitness tests to weed out people like that. Surely someone 6 feet tall 300 or 400 pounds can barely walk let alone run after someone.

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

#119

Post by TheAceOfHearts »

irrational wrote: post #75
FussyZeus wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the 1%. Something Rich people tend to forget is that the system of law and order we have now prevents armed uprising of the lower classes, which has a history of cropping up during very hard economic times. Not advocating, and I doubt I'd be one of them holding a pitchfork, but it is something to keep in mind.

Back in the day, most people grew up working on a farm/ranch/etc. and actually knew how to use a pitchfork. I'm trying to imagine today's obese generation trying to physically overthrow the government and can't help thinking that it wouldn't go so well.

Most Americans have guns. The police has better weapons, but it would be a war of attrition, and I doubt most police would want to go on killing sprees against their fellow countrymen.

Although I doubt it'd reach the point of massive insurrection. That would require a total loss of trust in the government, and I think we're still far from that.

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

#120

Post by paulddraper »

shawn wrote: post #72
elif wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0utzB6oDan0 Re: monarch, the rule of law is the baseline for not being one. And laws don’t really apply to Putin. He’s able to hold onto the presidency for as long as he wants it, and assassinate whomever he wishes.

According to this source [1], dictator not monarch would be the proper term, as the transfer of power for a monarchies is familial, and the transfer of power for a dictator is political/a coup.

Without seeing into the future, everything since 1917 has been the latter.

[1] https://difference.guru/difference-between-a-monarchy-and-a-...

Post reply on HN