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

221–230 of 399 posts

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

#221

Post by pazimzadeh »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #119
irrational wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

30% of Americans have guns http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/the-demographics-o...

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

#222

Post by code_duck »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #200
lev99 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An attempt to overthrow the government is handled by the military, not the police. The military has more guns, better supply lines, and better discipline than police forces.

It would be terrible to see the military killing its own citizens in defense of a corrupt government that doesn't work for those citizens.

It’s easy though, just tell them they are undocumented Mexican transsexuals who voted for Obama.

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

#223

Post by EasyTiger_ »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #188
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…

> America is in the midst of a new gilded age Why not golden instead of gilded? Per capita incomes are at an all time high, in real terms, and growing; violent crime per capita a historical low; and life expectancy high, though it could be higher. We are on the verge of tremendous technological advances in propulsion, AI, biology and energy. And more people are educated enough to wonder at those advancements than eve…

Life expectancy has actually begun falling: https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/21/health/us-life-expectancy...

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

#224

Post by prolikewh0a »

calcifer wrote: post #187
ralusek wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't their margins like, razor-thin? Obviously at Amazon scale, even razor-thin margins mean huge profits, but that doesn't mean that you have any wiggle room within the profit. Imagine you have 100 people working for you, and off of each person, you make 10 cents a day. Now imagine you grow your business and you have 1,000,000 people working for you. At 10 cents per person per day, you're now making $100,000 a DAY…

If your margins are so thin that people are forced to pee in bottles instead of going to the bathroom then your company shouldn't exist.

Also if you're having employees carried out because they can't keep productivity up during 100F + east coast humidity, your company shouldn't exist.

http://techland.time.com/2011/09/21/amazon-employees-carried...

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

#225

Post by Rescis »

code_duck wrote: post #180
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How old is the average American gun owner? Are they physically fit? Merely owning guns is different than possessing the physical ability and training in weapons and tactics to use them effectively, especially versus military or paramilitary forces (National Guard and Border Patrol is a much more likely initial pro-government force than police). Not only are they equipped and trained with the same weapons civilians ma…

Keep in mind that the very modern, very well funded, and very well equipped US military has been fighting a bunch of dudes with rifles and IED's for the past several dozen years without conclusive victories or signs of the resistance slowing.

That US military is also neither attacking its own citizens it has filial and friendly ties with, nor attacking people who look and talk like it.

Modern armor and missiles don't accomplish much when the enemies main goal is to just live as they want to (instead of conquer territory or resources).

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

#226

Post by nradov »

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?

While the New Deal may have lengthened the Great Depression (impossible to prove one way or the other), it was a net win by preventing a violent socialist revolution. Those uprisings occurred in other countries. It really could have happened here.

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

#227

Post by code_duck »

FussyZeus wrote: post #218
code_duck wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How old is the average American gun owner? Are they physically fit? Merely owning guns is different than possessing the physical ability and training in weapons and tactics to use them effectively, especially versus military or paramilitary forces (National Guard and Border Patrol is a much more likely initial pro-government force than police). Not only are they equipped and trained with the same weapons civilians ma…

In every instance throughout history, the $weapon wielded by the peasant has been vastly inferior to the one wielded by the noble's army, guards, etc. In fact one could argue that the peasantry has never been less outgunned that they are currently, when previous uprisings made do with sticks and rocks, and the heads of the wealthy still rolled in the end. The fact is that the select few protect themselves with rolls…

It’s hard to be sure exactly what scenario people are picturing when they speculate about this. If you want an example of urban warfare vs. a modern military, check out Iraq about 10 year ago. While it was difficult, for them, guess who won. As far as the rest of the theorizing, we would have to be on common ground about the entire scenario before it’s worth speculating about.

For example, I don’t know what food you’re talking about because in my wild fantasy scenario, all of the freeways have been destroyed and Walmarts and grocery stores are empty. Mass starvation, plague, panic, electricity is off, no communication systems work other than the military. They have seized anything useful. They have tanks etc, which helps a lot. As far as ‘who will sell them food’... you’re talking about a highly armed military force fighting a civil war? Do you think people are going shopping at Kroger with the other side or something? This isn’t the French Revolution. This is 80 years after millions of people died in gas chambers in Europe, right? The next major wars are not going to be very friendly.

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

#228

Post by howard941 »

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…

Even though teachers are woefully underpaid here like most other state workers other than those who write laws or live in the governor's mansion there hasn't been a teachers strike in Florida for some time. See, for ex., http://news.wfsu.org/post/its-been-50-years-florida-teachers...

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

#229

Post by lev99 »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #200
lev99 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An attempt to overthrow the government is handled by the military, not the police. The military has more guns, better supply lines, and better discipline than police forces.

It would be terrible to see the military killing its own citizens in defense of a corrupt government that doesn't work for those citizens.

It would be far from the first time that has happened in history.

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

#230

Post by ttoinou »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #175
conanbatt wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I ... I wasn't really suggesting...

   so Bezos could buy a house for roughly 1 in every 330 adults in the U.S.
Looks like you were.

J. Bezos does not have 150 billions baguette and cannot buy 150 billions baguette with what you think his wealth is

Post reply on HN