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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

#261

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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’…

Well I was specifically speaking in very broad terms. I don't know what a Civil War in the modern US will look like and I hope to Christ or whoever else is running this thing that it doesn't come to that.

I think though that far beyond contemplating who is shooting at who with what, the more interesting question is what does victory look like for the 1%? Just shoot everyone who complains until there's nothing but peaceful staff left?

If you're talking an actual war of attrition between the classes in the US, you'd be crazy to bet on the rich. It's not even a question of "if" they can win, their win condition DOES NOT EXIST and cannot exist. The more disgruntled people who are killed, the more people become disgruntled, until you have the entirety of the damn country saying "wait a minute, why am I shooting my fellow citizens because Mr. Bezos wants a 10th house?"

If this gets to a place of violence, and if the Rich of today allow it to get to that place, they have assured their own destruction, it's simply a matter of time. The best thing they could be doing right now is supporting measures to help out the common people, if for no other reason than their money cannot stop the torches.

Edit: I'm rambling a bit here but I guess my counterpoint basically boils down to: let's assume that the Rich get full control of the US Military and it's assets to end civil insurrection and restore economic order. How do they do it? What orders do they give? Where do they send the missiles to dismantle the resistance? Which neighborhoods get power cut? Who gets banned from twitter? And how does it end?

I'm just not seeing a way that such a conflict would end where Amazon (or anyone else) could simply resume business as usual.

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

#262
post #207

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One in three households or thereabouts. It's certainly not "most" - but not sure "vocal minority" is accurate either? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/29/ameri...

So that’s 33%— of households, not people —at best. Definitely a minority—a minority that appears to be growing even smaller if the trends continue. They’re definitely vocal. What part of calling them a vocal minority seems inaccurate?

I guess I'm not used to such a large group being seen as a "minority". Isn't the breakdown in US elections roughly 1 in 3 (or 1 in 4) Democrat, Republican and other (independent / didn't vote)?

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

#263

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

Amazon has 566,000 employees. We have to guesstimate their hours, but let's say it's about 1500 per year. That's probably really lowballing it, but even there that's 849 million manhours per year. Put another way, a raise of $1 would cost around a billion dollars. Don't forget that employers pay additional taxes and fees that scale against employee compensation meaning they get double tapped when increasing compensat…

That's true, but you could distribute stock more uniformly (since that's where most of Bezos's wealth comes from) and then workers would benefit from making Amazon successful.

I think a lot of the criticism on HN of capitalism is misguided and fails to account for some of the things you pointed out as well as the enormous rise in living standards over the last 200 years or so, but there does seem to be a tendency for successful people to accumulate far more wealth than they can reasonably spend.

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

#264

The scariest part is that he's not done.

Why is that scary? Good for him, he has really changed the world, specifically the way retail has evolved in recent years.

Concentration of power is never good.

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

#265
post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One in three households or thereabouts. It's certainly not "most" - but not sure "vocal minority" is accurate either? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/29/ameri...

A house hold often includes more than one person. Those other individuals are not gun owners. Gun owners are a fairly small group with a very powerful lobby that needs to be ignored.

Just because you don't personally own a gun doesn't mean you're also against owning guns.

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

#266

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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…

>By making compute infrastructure affordable and by making consumer review data available for all products, Bezos is a champion of the little guy. He hasn't gotten rich through government crony capitalism or fraud, he's done the simplest stuff better than anyone else could. He let's people buy products that are reviewed thoroughly by other customers, he has a reasonable return policy, etc. This benefits consumers AND…

How many of the workers chose to work there instead of some other, inferior option? How many are proud of what they accomplished? How many went on to found other successful startups like Instacart?

selfishness is allowed? Is it possible to disallow a core human trait?

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

#267

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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.

If you have a checking account you probably have more liquid assets than the bottom 3 billion.

Exactly. I'm apparently in the top 0.5% and it always feels like money is tight. Anyone who must work for a living is in a sense poor.

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

#268

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> $150B don't mean anything That's the silliest thing I ever heard. Anyone with more than $50K net worth is or ought to be keeping nearly all of it in investments of some sort, what you're calling "virtual money". It's no more virtual than your 401(k) or Schwab account or home. By your logic, nearly the entire American economy "doesn't mean anything."

I think you miss-understood my statement. They calculated $150B based on is 16.4% stakes in Amazon, 100% financial assets (stocks). Yes, you can convert it into real assets at any time, after vesting period, but as the CEO and founder of Amazon, he can't do that. So the point is, he is still considered the richest man on earth at the moment, but he can't still spend $100 billion tomorrow on a gigantic island. So, yea…

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

#269
post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Americans don't have guns. Gun owners are a minority with a very loud voice.

One in three households or thereabouts. It's certainly not "most" - but not sure "vocal minority" is accurate either? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/29/ameri...

Minority generally means “less than half”. In some contexts, with a non-binary trait, it may mean “smaller than the largest group”, with the largest group being a “majority” if it is greater than 50%, and a “plurality” if it is not.

33% on a binary trait (one either does or does not own at least one gun) is clearly a minority.

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

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A house hold often includes more than one person. Those other individuals are not gun owners. Gun owners are a fairly small group with a very powerful lobby that needs to be ignored.

Just because you don't personally own a gun doesn't mean you're also against owning guns.

And that is not relevant, either you own a gun or you don't. Americans by and large don't own one.
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