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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

#151

Post by fullshark »

vlunkr wrote: post #73
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…

Are average Americans losing purchasing power? This is a real question, I don't know where to look that up.

Goods are cheaper, Rent + College Education + Healthcare is much more expensive.

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

#152

Post by nickthemagicman »

pitaj wrote: post #134
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%.

You mean the same New Deal that likely extended the length of the Great Depression by a significant multiple?

This goes against every ounce of history I've been taught.

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

#153

Post by refurb »

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%.

Considering the top 1% is ~$450K per year per household, I'd wager plenty of folks on HN are in the top 1% if they are a two income household.

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

#154

Post by nickthemagicman »

LarryDarrell wrote: post #114
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.

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.

It's interesting there's theories that say it took the black plague to wipe out half of Europe and end the riches domination of the poor, end the dark ages, and ultimately start the enlightenment.

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

#155

Post by 0xCMP »

sidlls wrote: post #143
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%.

"About to?" It already is brutal for the bottom half. And the 90th percentile is too low: people in that range are paupers by comparison even to the top 5. I think the 95th to the 99th percentile is the region to look at. There are some seriously deluded individuals in that group who think they won't be on the outside with the rest of us when the top pull the gates closed behind them.

Extremely deluded

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

#156

Post by thatfrenchguy »

mozumder wrote: post #117
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.

[flagged]

But the democratic establishment does policies that are very similar to republicans, get all their money from the 1% and corporations, and I’d be surprised if progressives manage to break out.

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

#157

Post by ryanmercer »

olfactory wrote: post #99
ryanmercer wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>That's misleading though

Not really. It's not an actionable metric but it doesn't change the fact he's filthy rich and I wish I could trade net worth with him.

>Bezos is not an enemy of the little guy

Indeed, he's the opposite. I clear international freight through customs for a living... it amazes me how many people/companies import direct to Amazon for FBA selling.

Yeah, Amazon certainly hits you hard with fees if you go FBA and even just using Amazon as a payment method is more expensive than a traditional credit card merchant account (I know it's Chris Bair's most expensive way to be paid by customers for Keto Chow) but Amazon offers all sorts of exposure for enterprising individuals and companies.

As lousy as compensation to employees may or may not be, there is no shortage of people willing to take the rather well-paying jobs (Amazon starts at like 13$ an hour in Indy with minimum wage being 7.25).

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

#158

Post by nostromo »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #152
pitaj wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the same New Deal that likely extended the length of the Great Depression by a significant multiple?

This goes against every ounce of history I've been taught.

The New Deal has never not been controversial, from proposal to present day. I imagine its effects will be argued about until the heat death of the universe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal#Historiography_and_ev...

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

#159

Post by ahelwer »

koube wrote: post #137

This thread is one of the prime examples of Hacker News being terrible when going off topic. You only have to read three comments to get to the most upvoted person saying the rich are at risk of violent revolution. A few more comments and people are discussing logistics of violent revolution, and whether police are too obese to participate or perhaps they act only in the interest of the 1%. Are these educated opinion…

Your synonymous use of "educated" with "neoliberal" is notable. Those who ignore the views of the workers because they are not articulated in language they find acceptable do so at their own historical peril.

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

#160

Post by nickthemagicman »

olfactory wrote: post #131
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%.

Today we have a military industrial complex supported by both parties and our most vital student loans (championed by our "left" party) come with no bankruptcy protection. We do have a very strong Federal government, but it's designed to funnel money to various interest groups. By making compute infrastructure affordable and by making consumer review data available for all products, Bezos is a champion of the little…

Completely agree. Bezos is great. This is not so much an attack on Bezos as it is an attack on a system that let's 30 single individuals amass more wealth than the bottom 3 billion.
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