Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B • Hacker News Board

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

#371

Post by dgacmu » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 2:40 PM UTC

xkjkls wrote: post #302

unimpressive wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the research branches of a university are much less ambiguously positive than the teaching branches. One of the things people consistently fail to grok is that community colleges of the sort that are generally fairly cheap, are cheap in large part because their mission is to make higher education accessible. Universities do not (and probably shouldn't) have that mission. Their mission is to fund original rese…

I wonder if general research is really a great charitable investment either. Medicine seems the most obviously positive research initiative to fund, but looking at the last few decades of medical research, I don't see many discoveries that have demonstrably improved human well being.

In the big picture, research needs to be balanced, because it builds on itself across fields. Medicine needs physics, computer science, biology, robotics, chemistry, material science, math ... (think drug discovery/modeling, materials for implants, sutures, techniques for laparoscopic surgery, medical records, virology, ... everything). Each of these fields has cross-dependencies as well.

The real thing that's needed is investments in high-risk, long-term fundamental research. Companies have a very hard time doing things with long, risky timelines (and justifiably so, they have a bottom line to account for in general). In _all_ fields.

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

#372

Post by pedromsilvapt » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 3:02 PM UTC

resters wrote: post #266

prolikewh0a wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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?

Yes. Envy is a core human trait as well. Some people envy their neighbor's car. Stealing it is still forbidden by law.

Likewise, disallowing envy (or selfishness) by itself is not possible, but making illegal the actions that result from those feelings can (and sometimes should) be outlawed.

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

#373

Post by pedromsilvapt » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 3:04 PM UTC

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #260

nickthemagicman wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

3 billion combined? Because that's what the parent comment was implying. Your point hardly seems like a fair comparison.

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

#374

Post by baud147258 » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 3:12 PM UTC

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…

For the French Revolution, the King refused to used the army against the people. And the revolutionary had the support of some of the rich and powerful

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

#375

Post by foxyv » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 3:30 PM UTC

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.

Unless Amazon and the other mega-corps destroyed all the other companies that you could have worked for. Or if all the other companies have the same policies and work hard to set a fixed wage. Or if you have a criminal record and only Amazon will take you to pick packages...

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

#376

Post by nickthemagicman » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 3:50 PM UTC

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #260

nickthemagicman wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah but you can still be living in the same relative poverty as they are.

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

#377

Post by nickthemagicman » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 3:51 PM UTC

Shivetya wrote: post #205

nickthemagicman wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

except the mass majority of the bottom three billion live where governments do respect property rights. private wealth only exists where that is true, otherwise all wealth would be concentrated in the hands of politicians as it is in many places; well that and their very select friends most of which they installed over state resources.

I mean poverty is poverty even in America.

50% of Americans can't come.up with 500 bucks in case of emergency.

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

#378

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:23 PM UTC

gremlinsinc wrote: post #369

dragonwriter wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is not illegal for corporations to donate to political campaigns The FEC, who actually enforced election law, disagrees: https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/candidate... “Campaigns may not accept contributions from the treasury funds of corporations, labor organizations or national banks. This prohibition applies to any incorporated organization, including a nonstock corporation, a trade associati…

Except there are plenty of 'loopholes'. 1. Superpacs. 2. DNC Fund. (Automatically went to clinton in many cases, so it was another bucket of cash for her campaign. It should've been split evenly in the primary between her and other primary runners. 3. Promises. 'Hey larry, when you're out of congress, let us know if you want to work for our Posh lobby firm. Comfy pay and benefits'. 4. There own interests. Cheney / Ha…

> I don't know the answer to get rid of all corruption, but how is it that ISP's were able to give money to politicians who voted against net neutrality?

There are four things that are often described by activists and the media as donations by corporations (sometimes combined, sometimes just one or the other—the first and third seem to be the most common where dollar figures are given, because they are most readily available), in roughly decreasing order of the degree to which such descriptions are misleading:

(1) donations by employees of the corporation (regular individual donors with reportable donations must disclose their employer, and often donations by employees of a firm or industry are described as donations by the firm or industry.)

(2) Donations to “leadership organizations” directed by candidates (this is misleading when described as a campaign donation to the candidate, because such organizations are conduits that allow the candidate to promote other candidates), and

(3) Donations to SuperPACs that align to some extent with a particular candidate. (This is a wobbler in terms of how misleading g it is, because some superPACs are essentially focussed on a single candidate, and some are more general.)

(4) Donations from a corporate “separate segregated fund” (this money doesn't actually come from the corporation as such—it is separately solicited from managers and shareholders—but is directed by it.)

The particular article you refer to expressly combines the first two categories.

So, to completely ban the contributions identified in that article, you'd have to prohibit anyone with a job from contributing to a political campaign, and to eliminate everything commonly portrayed as corporate contributions, you'd have to also outlaw independent expenditures (which are what SuperPACs do) on political advocacy.

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

#379

Post by erikpukinskis » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:46 PM UTC

isostatic wrote: post #85

elif wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you please cite putin's monarchic ascendancy? i'm having trouble sourcing even the premise of your claim...

He's been in sole control of Russia for 18 years

Is he going to pass that control to his children? I think that would be the definition of monarchy, not the term length.

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

#380

Post by erikpukinskis » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:51 PM UTC

Tracking a flagged comment from picsao here:

> And all his riches couldn't stop the planets demise from a insane economical concept, who's crazy ess he took to the next level.

I think this is an interesting point. Has Amazon grown industrial production and shipping and therefore increased net CO2?

Possible counterclaims:

- more informed purchasing leads to fewer discarded items

- centralized shipping is more efficient than driving your car to the store

It does seem like in the limit Amazon could have a profoundly positive effect on the net carbon of our products. It doesn’t seem like they are optimizing for that right now. Although and optimal strategy there would probably be growth first and then carbon efficiency when the growth levels off.