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Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

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Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#161

Post by ironrabbit »

gonehome wrote: post #131
ironrabbit wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question because I'm out of the loop: it looks to me like the "Bezos doesn't pay taxes" argument is just pointing out that most of his wealth sits in unrealized gains in amazon stock. When he sells stock, he pays taxes. Is there more to it that I'm missing? Is the prevailing argument that we should be paying taxes on unrealized capital gains?

I don't think you're missing anything - the sense I get is that it's primarily a knee-jerk political response. I suspect people like to take cynical negative views of things because it's both easy and a common method of trying to signal wise-ness, rarely is it applied consistently though. Bezos is just extremely visible and people take the positive space stuff as an excuse to 'well, actually' be 'contrarian' and nega…

Interesting. Resetting cost basis upon inheritance does seem like a massive tax avoidance loophole, I can't quickly think of a reason why this should be allowed. I agree also that this would probably be a popular (and sensible) modification to the tax code.

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#164

Post by monocasa »

missedthecue wrote: post #104
pb7 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He pays all the taxes he owes.

And he isn't even involved in any arcane minimization schemes. ProPublica showed that he sold ~$4 billion in Amazon stock last year and paid a billion of it to the government.

And made $100B that year. Can I get a 1% effective tax rate too?

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#165

Post by pb7 »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #145
rejectedandsad wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> while you got a 1400 dollar check so you could survive American people had the most generous COVID response of any country in the world, including the Superdole.

this isn't even remotely true, in Canada for instance, if you got laid off during covid, you could get $2000 a month payments unconditionally.

In the US, you would get $600/week on top of the usual unemployment (which is 60% of your regular wage) which amounts to significantly more than Canada. For a minimum wage worker, that would be over $40K/year.

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#166

Post by cactus2093 »

cassac wrote: post #81
catillac wrote: post #2

There will be a lot of cynicism on this post from the HN crowd, but these are unbelievably good recipients. I have interacted with Jose Andres many times, and go to his DC restaurants when I visit, and he is truly a wonderful soul who spends all his effort helping others. I don’t know much about Van Jones beyond what I see on TV, but if he’s of the same character as Jose Andres, that is stellar and they will both do…

It deserves cynicism. If he wasn’t a jerk he’d just pay his employees more and maybe pay some taxes. When everyone is fair upfront they don’t need to give us free turkeys on thanksgiving we can buy our own.

This line of argument is so completely unhinged. Bezos paid roughly $1B in taxes in 2018, and Amazon warehouses pay well above the minimum wage.

I understand progressives wanting to raise taxes and raise minimum wage, but why in the world would you blame someone personally for just paying the going rate? That's what we all do for the taxes and service providers we pay.

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#167

Post by agorabinary »

BingoAhoy wrote: post #151
prepend wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> pay his employees more Doesn’t Amazon pay highest in its industry? I suppose people always want more, but it seems like they are already among the best. Of course pay varies by location and what’s good in one state is good in another. But it seems the average warehouse worker pay is $12.61 [0] with states ranging from $9.66 for North Carolina (holy cow) to $14.84 in Washington [1]. Amazon pays $16/hour [2] so that’…

Not an odd complaint considering he's worth 207 billion. He could more fairly divide that stock wealth among Amazonians. Question is: that 207 billion, did he accumulate that fairly himself or did his workforce accumulate that for him? Hard to answer from the outside but could a single man accumulate 207 billion without help as a corporation of one.

How many of the decisions that determined whether Amazon would become worth >$1T or yet another mediocre web store were made by warehouse workers? Jeff is primarily responsible for Amazon's success. For making Amazon what it is, him being worth ~10% of the whole company is a totally reasonable compensation

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#168

Post by bicknergseng »

pb7 wrote: post #125
Hokusai wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His employees are free to seek a better paid employment if a jerk they work for underpays them. So, people have options to stop being poor, people have options to not have to pee in a bottle at work, but they chose to do it, why? Poverty removes many options, lack of good education removes many options, abusive corporations keep options far away. The system is the problem, people is just living in a system manipula…

>people have options to not have to pee in a bottle at work Just because a few weird individuals chose to do this doesn't mean you have to do it. It's a folk tale used as a rallying cry against Amazon. It has as much meaning as Googlers earning $300K/year choosing to live in vans parked outside the office. Some people make questionable decisions. It doesn't speak at all to any sort of environmental problems.

I'm curious if you actually think there's a real equivalency between choosing to eccentrically live in a van despite having more socially acceptable alternative options enabled by a salary far above the median vs making desperate moves to keep a poverty-low-but-not-the-absolute-lowest job that is designed to force turnover for all but the "highest performers." I understand there's a lot of hyperbole in a topic that deserves way more nuance, but IMO trying to make these seem the same causes more damage than anything else, since it drives this negatively reinforcing cycle where the effectively disenfranchised group of poverty wage workers somehow has a real stake at the table.

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#169

Post by cactus2093 »

monocasa wrote: post #164
missedthecue wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And he isn't even involved in any arcane minimization schemes. ProPublica showed that he sold ~$4 billion in Amazon stock last year and paid a billion of it to the government.

And made $100B that year. Can I get a 1% effective tax rate too?

Yes you can, just don't realize your capital gains.

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#170

Post by homarp »

missedthecue wrote: post #121
RIMR wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Bernie Sanders the authority here? Given inflation and a year-after-year growth in productivity, the minimum wage should be closer to $25/hour. Sanders falls way short of reality - but likely because the powers that be are more likely to compromise with a half-measure than give up more wealth to meaningfully improve America's economy by paying people equitably.

I never said he is the authority, but is probably the most prominent and well known Amazon critic on the planet today, and leads a huge populist movement that has been pushing for a 'living wage', which Sanders defines as $15/hr. My question remains - at what dollar amount will people be satisfied that Bezos is being fair?

> at what dollar amount will people be satisfied that Bezos is being fair?

70k a year :) https://www.inc.com/magazine/201511/paul-keegan/does-more-pa...

$15 an hour is $120 a day (8h) and $600 a week (5 days) and $2400 a month and $28800 a year.

$20 an hour is $160 a day, $800 a week, $3200 a month and $38400 a year.

$35 an hour is $280/d, $1400/w, $5600 a month and $67200 a year

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