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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

#331

Post by delecti »

csomar wrote: post #253

These numbers are not fair and square. Let's say someone has $100. Cold Cash. Let's say someone has $100. In xyz Asset. Comparing both in terms of wealth is not fair and square. First. They might have different purchasing power. Bezos can't liquidate $150bn of AMZ stock without slippage. If he could, then there must be another party willing to put $150bn of cash. Not many such parties in this world have that kinda ca…

Does anyone with a net worth greater than $1B calculated in such a manner have more than even a tenth in liquid wealth?

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

#332

Post by ralusek »

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.

They're not forced to do anything, including work there.

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

#333

Post by ValleyOfTheMtns »

Not to downplay the absurd amount of wealth he has, but it's interesting to look at richest people in history, adjusted for inflation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_historical_... https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-art...

Bezos is less than half the wealth of the people at the top of those lists. Puts this into context.

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

#334

Post by chii »

pm90 wrote: post #258
code_duck wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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’…

People can be extremely resilient, especially when their lives are at hand. I don't think you've thought this through. A true civil war where the US military is fighting its own citizens won't be like the Iraq war at all. There is likely to be mass defection of soldiers who are unwilling to fight their own countrymen. Massive civil disobedience where taxpayers stop paying their taxes, farmers defect to the sides that…

That's not the worst scenario.

If the govt or millitary hold so much tech that you end up in a hunger game scenario, and the population is oppressed (but unlike hunger games, the oppression comes in the form of feeble food and entertainment - ala, bread and circus).

The people feel comfortable enough to not want to revolt. Yet, ignores the minority that do get harsher treatment, because doing so puts their own lively hood in jeopardy.

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

#335

Post by AtlasBarfed »

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…

Open rebellion in the US would tank its credit rating and foreign investment, which is the only thing keeping it afloat.

No sane country would lend us money to wage war on our own people/economic infrastructure.

And mass insurrection would disrupt the supply chain. Nothing is warehoused these days, so the country would fall apart.

Maybe I'm a pessimist. Maybe I should start digging my shelter.

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

#336

Post by throwawaymaroon »

ralusek wrote: post #332
calcifer wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They're not forced to do anything, including work there.

haha look at this fucking loser here.

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

#337

Post by erikpukinskis »

jacobush wrote: post #90
hugh4life wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"For one, Rockefeller grew rich quickly coz there wasn’t as much regulation as compared to what Bezos had to face." Eh, Bezos got rich off of not having to pay state sales taxes while his brick and mortar competitors did. But AWS makes up for that IMO.

Wait what? Makes up for it why? It's not like you couldn't virtualised servers elsewhere.

Anyone could have. Amazon did.

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

#338

Post by nradov »

MikeHolman wrote: post #329
nradov wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's assuming a socialist revolution is unequivocally bad. The world would be so incredibly different, it's impossible to say that it would be worse.

A socialist revolution during the Great Depression would have left the USA temporarily too weakened and divided to help the Allies defeat the Axis powers in WWII. That would have been unequivocally bad for the entire world.

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

#339

Post by revision17 »

danesparza wrote: post #129
ryanmercer wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Mansa Musa who would have had a modern net worth north of $400B. He nearly destroyed a regional economy when he went to make hajj to Mecca just doing his personal shopping and handing money out to beggars, some would have it that he had to take out ridiculous loans to try and undo some of the damage he did by dumping 1.5 billion dollars plus of gold into the economy.

I love that they qualified the title with "modern history". For this reason, I'm sure. Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali

Indeed, also Augustus Caesar owned (or at least claimed to own) Egypt as his own private property. That would be difficult to quantify in modern terms.

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

#340

Post by TaylorAlexander »

ralusek wrote: post #332
calcifer wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They're not forced to do anything, including work there.

Not directly. But since people like Bezos own most of the productive machinery of the world, people really don’t have a choice except to work for one of the capital owners. In past times, people were free to work the land for themselves, as the land was held in common. Now somebody owns everything, and those of us who want to eat actually have almost “no choice” but to work for someone else.
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