311–320 of 399 posts
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Assuage your guilt?
> 1. To make (something burdensome or painful) less intense or severe: assuage her grief. See Synonyms at relieve. > 2. To satisfy or appease (hunger or thirst, for example). > 3. To appease or calm: assuaged his critics. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/assuage
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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.
This is part of the reason why the country is so divided. It's a great tactic to prevent the masses from organized. Give the left and the right something to hate (each other) and steal the economic gains for yourself.
Basically troll the party in red states, some might actually get elected on a platform similar to Bernie but tweaked to appeal to right wingers, and then we can work from left/right to pull the masses to a center that's more progressive less corporatist.
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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.
• 50th percentile is 21900,
• 90th is "only" 50600,
• 95th is 70400, that's the salary required for the 220K average UK house.
• 96th is 78800
• 97th is 91300
• 98th is 11000
• 99th is 159000, that's the salary required for the 500K average London house.
It really only takes off from 97th percents. Wealth diagram is probably going to look like that too.
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I think a modern U.S. Civil War will look a lot like Syria. Once social order collapses, you'll get a bunch of different armed factions all pursuing their own social agenda. Remember that the 99% generally hates each other a lot more than they hate the rich; I can't imagine a Nazi from North Carolina, an Evangelical from Arkansas, a proud Southerner from Alabama, a blue-collar Irish Catholic from Boston, a cattle-ran…
I suspect national guard forces would make the backbone of several armed factions. Endgame for the 1% is being in a position to gain the spoils of war and to take less damage than your competition.
Private security forces and tech/AI are wildcards - we haven't had anything like the former since feudal mercenary days, and we haven't had anything like the latter ever - but could also form the basis for power centers.
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And many Democratic voters find the current, establishment of DNC politicians to be delusionally far right of their constituents. See: Bernie, Ocasio-Cortez, and what I believe will be many more Dems with a leaning towards progressive policy.
There's not that many, though. The vast majority of Democrats like corporate employment.
If it's illegal for lobbyists, corporations, etc to donate to politicians, then we can make politics more fair/ethical. This is a bipartisan group working to get these passed.
Anti-corruption benefits everyone.
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That's largely the value of his stock, though. Not defending him or the inequality as such, but it's not as if he's got $150 bn in cash that he could just distribute to his employees.
He has $150 bn in stock that he could just distribute to his employees.
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Amazon’s net income per employee is 33,000 USD [0]. This means every Amazon employee could get a 30,000 USD raise and Amazon would still be profitable. [0] https://csimarket.com/stocks/singleEfficiencyeit.php?code=AM...
Net income, like the cost of their rent, inventory, infrastructure, R&D, advertising, acquisitions are all taken into account before coming to this figure? Or is it just employee costs like salary and benefits? I find that hard to believe, but if it's the case, then they clearly don't have razor thin margins, and what I said before simply doesn't apply to Amazon.
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"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.
America is a nation of temporarily inconvenienced millionaires. This disconnect between expectations and reality is one of it's biggest problems. You can visit any number of poorer nations where being poor does is not a punishment, it not equate to a difficult or miserable life, because society, it's services and it's infrastructure are all built to accomodate people of modest means. In America is designed for you to…
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Amazon’s net income per employee is 33,000 USD [0]. This means every Amazon employee could get a 30,000 USD raise and Amazon would still be profitable. [0] https://csimarket.com/stocks/singleEfficiencyeit.php?code=AM...
Net income, like the cost of their rent, inventory, infrastructure, R&D, advertising, acquisitions are all taken into account before coming to this figure? Or is it just employee costs like salary and benefits? I find that hard to believe, but if it's the case, then they clearly don't have razor thin margins, and what I said before simply doesn't apply to Amazon.
For 2018 they might produce $6b in net income, assuming they don't go on a big spending spree (which they're prone to do). They'll average perhaps 600,000 to 650,000 employees for 2018. So their net income per employee ratio is going to be closer to $10,000. It'll still be nowhere near the $33,000 the parent claims.
$33,000 in net income per employee would require near $20b in net income this year.
Amazon does in fact have extraordinarily razor thin margins, in their retail business. AWS is very profitable, with ~25% style operating income margins. It's providing all of the net income Amazon is generating now, retail essentially reinvests its thin margins right back into growth and improving fulfillment.
Walmart has 2.5% to 3% net income margins for example. Facebook is typically up at 40% to 50% for comical contrast. Amazon's retail business will spend most of its existence with 2% to 5% type margins.
Costco had a 2% net income margin for 2017. Target was at 3.9%. High volume, low margin retail is a horrendous business, very few operators can survive with such perpetually low margins. You have to execute at an extraordinary level.
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There's not that many, though. The vast majority of Democrats like corporate employment.
The key is passing anti-corruption acts that get money out of politics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhe286ky-9A If it's illegal for lobbyists, corporations, etc to donate to politicians, then we can make politics more fair/ethical. This is a bipartisan group working to get these passed. Anti-corruption benefits everyone.
It is illegal for corporations to donate to politicians.
But independent expenditures that aren't donated are another matter, which you can't eliminate without taking a big whack to the first amendment and core political speech.