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Who Pays for Bezos' $100 Billion Net Worth?

D

Deleted member 21794

Guest
Nope. You dodged the issue, as you know.

Ya got no game.
No, you're lying again. You said:

"I prefer an economy where your imaginary $100K/year Amazon worker is able to have his own business selling things."


I responded with the data on people making well over $100K per year at Amazon.

https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Amazon.com_Inc/Salary/by_Job

It is you who is dodging. But we can clear this up quite easily. Are there a lot of jobs at Amazon that pay over $100,000 per year? Yes or no?
 
Sounds like a drama queen worked there, though I gladly concede it does not sound like a job I would want. So quit. Or are there gangs of Amazon thugs, grabbing people off the streets and forcing them to work at Amazon? If so, I'll be the first to join arms with you and demand people go to jail.
Gangs of thugs are found everywhere:

"Reserve army of labour is a concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy.[1]

"It refers to the unemployed and under-employed in capitalist society.

"It is synonymous with 'industrial reserve army' or 'relative surplus population', except that the unemployed can be defined as those actually looking for work and that the relative surplus population also includes people unable to work.

"The use of the word 'army' refers to the workers being conscripted and regimented in the workplace in a hierarchy, under the command or authority of the owners of capital."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_army_of_labour
 

Bugsy McGurk

President
No, you're lying again. You said:

"I prefer an economy where your imaginary $100K/year Amazon worker is able to have his own business selling things."


I responded with the data on people making well over $100K per year at Amazon.

https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Amazon.com_Inc/Salary/by_Job

It is you who is dodging. But we can clear this up quite easily. Are there a lot of jobs at Amazon that pay over $100,000 per year? Yes or no?
Your dodging is boring, and your post editing is deplorable.
 
No, you're lying again. You said:

"I prefer an economy where your imaginary $100K/year Amazon worker is able to have his own business selling things."


I responded with the data on people making well over $100K per year at Amazon.

https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Amazon.com_Inc/Salary/by_Job

It is you who is dodging. But we can clear this up quite easily. Are there a lot of jobs at Amazon that pay over $100,000 per year? Yes or no?
How many of those earning over $100,000 a year at Amazon are being abused so Greedy Jeff can rake in $100 billion?

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html

"At Amazon, workers are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas in meetings, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are 'unreasonably high.'

"The internal phone directory instructs colleagues on how to send secret feedback to one another’s bosses.

"Employees say it is frequently used to sabotage others. (The tool offers sample texts, including this: 'I felt concerned about his inflexibility and openly complaining about minor tasks.')"
 
D

Deleted member 21794

Guest
Your dodging is boring.
No, you're lying again. You said:

"I prefer an economy where your imaginary $100K/year Amazon worker is able to have his own business selling things."


I responded with the data on people making well over $100K per year at Amazon.

https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Amazon.com_Inc/Salary/by_Job

It is you who is dodging. But we can clear this up quite easily. Are there a lot of jobs at Amazon that pay over $100,000 per year? Yes or no?
 
D

Deleted member 21794

Guest
How many of those earning over $100,000 a year at Amazon are being abused so Greedy Jeff can rake in $100 billion?

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html

"At Amazon, workers are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas in meetings, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are 'unreasonably high.'

"The internal phone directory instructs colleagues on how to send secret feedback to one another’s bosses.

"Employees say it is frequently used to sabotage others. (The tool offers sample texts, including this: 'I felt concerned about his inflexibility and openly complaining about minor tasks.')"
So quit.
 
earth to amazon workers - your jobs are going away soon, no matter what.

those warehouse robots working alongside you are constantly being upgraded to do more and more stuff.

and the day of self driving delivery vehicles is almost at hand. what . . . don't tell me you thought those tesla and apple test vehicles were intended simply to allow you to text safely while being chauffeured to work or the mall.
 

connieb

Senator
A select few in the Amazon corporation get rich from exploiting the productive labor of thousands. Maybe the profit motive is not all that efficient after all?

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/11/27/undercover-reporter-reveals-brutal-working-conditions-at-amazon


"Observers said exhaustion and overwork led to the death of an Amazon employee who collapsed on the job in 2013 at a Richmond, Virginia warehouse, the Huffington Post reported.

● Ambulances reportedly waited in the parking lot to treat employees who fainted while working in 114-degree heat at a Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, warehouse in 2010.

● A former warehouse employee in Seattle told The Guardian in 2014 that she would rather be homeless than work for Amazon because of the demanding workload. The homeless woman said she slid onto the streets shortly after Amazon began sending employees home without pay to cut costs."
It's efficient for them. To your previous post as well the workers are treated as replaceable by the next wave of hires because they are. We are all replaceable. Our job if we want to become wealthy is figure out how to make ourselves as hard to replace as possible.
 
D

Deleted member 21794

Guest
earth to amazon workers - your jobs are going away soon, no matter what.

those warehouse robots working alongside you are constantly being upgraded to do more and more stuff.

and the day of self driving delivery vehicles is almost at hand. what . . . don't tell me you thought those tesla and apple test vehicles were intended simply to allow you to text safely while being chauffeured to work or the mall.
And let's not forget the drones. Well, your "self-driving delivery vehicles" kinda covers that. Instead of whining about the working conditions at Amazon, I'd be going to school learning to build, program and maintain automated equipment that is about to replace me. But then again, I prefer to not be a victim- unlike many leftists.
 
Well...if the dad down the street who is going bankrupt working for McDonalds lands a 100K job ( Amazon has lots of those ) because the tax adjustments make it possible for Bezos to create another 25 thousand jobs ( not a far reaching figure btw ) I'd like to see you have this conversation with him. He'll vote Trump for the next 40 years.

JO
If you think the tax bill means someone is going to go from working to McDonald's to making 100K without upgrading their skills you have got to be delusional.
 
And let's not forget the drones. Well, your "self-driving delivery vehicles" kinda covers that. Instead of whining about the working conditions at Amazon, I'd be going to school learning to build, program and maintain automated equipment that is about to replace me. But then again, I prefer to not be a victim- unlike many leftists.
how it will work: a self diving van will cruise along the streets. when it arrives at each recipient's house, a rooftop done will disembark with the package, and set it on you porch, then return to its charging station on the van. total flight time - 2 minutes or so.

Tthere's no way drones can ferry stuff back and forth to your door from a staging area 10 miles away.
 
And let's not forget the drones. Well, your "self-driving delivery vehicles" kinda covers that. Instead of whining about the working conditions at Amazon, I'd be going to school learning to build, program and maintain automated equipment that is about to replace me. But then again, I prefer to not be a victim- unlike many leftists.
how it will work: a self diving van will cruise along the streets. when it arrives at each recipient's house, a rooftop done will disembark with the package, and set it on you porch, then return to its charging station on the van. total flight time - 2 minutes or so.

Tthere's no way drones can ferry stuff back and forth to your door from a staging area 10 miles away.
 

Arkady

President
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-amazon-strike-20171124-story.html

"Workers at a half-dozen Amazon distribution centers in Germany and one in Italy walked off the job Friday to demand better wages from the American online giant in a protest timed to coincide with Black Friday.

"In Germany, Ver.di union spokesman Thomas Voss said some 2,500 workers were on strike at Amazon facilities in the cities of Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben and Koblenz.

"In a warehouse near Piacenza, in northern Italy, some workers walked off the job to demand 'dignified salaries.'"

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/24/16697520/jeff-bezos-net-worth-100-billion-dollars-amazon

"Jeff Bezos’ net worth surpasses 100 billion dollars."

How does democracy function when a greedy parasite acquires more personal wealth than many US states and African countries?
I suppose that as a liberal I should be upset, but I'm also an Amazon shareholder. I threw about $20k of my bonus into Amazon, last June. It had gotten beaten up a bit and I got it for about $700 per share. Today it's $1190.

Setting aside my own personal greed, I still don't feel that negatively towards Bezos, simply because he's someone who got rich because he built a better mousetrap. He wasn't someone who inherited his father's company, nor even someone who lucked out with one ridiculously profitable move that set him up for decades of profits (like Bill Gates). Instead, he's someone who committed to a business model that people ridiculed for years, as Amazon kept failing to turn a profit, only to be proven right in the longer run.
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-amazon-strike-20171124-story.html

"Workers at a half-dozen Amazon distribution centers in Germany and one in Italy walked off the job Friday to demand better wages from the American online giant in a protest timed to coincide with Black Friday.

"In Germany, Ver.di union spokesman Thomas Voss said some 2,500 workers were on strike at Amazon facilities in the cities of Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben and Koblenz.

"In a warehouse near Piacenza, in northern Italy, some workers walked off the job to demand 'dignified salaries.'"

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/24/16697520/jeff-bezos-net-worth-100-billion-dollars-amazon

"Jeff Bezos’ net worth surpasses 100 billion dollars."

How does democracy function when a greedy parasite acquires more personal wealth than many US states and African countries?
you don't seem to understand how his net worth is calculated. It is not money in his bank account. It is mostly in the stock in his own company. He will not have money in his pocket until he sells that stock. The stock is worth that much because of his efforts to create and grow the company. He owns 17% of the company.
 
It's efficient for them. To your previous post as well the workers are treated as replaceable by the next wave of hires because they are. We are all replaceable. Our job if we want to become wealthy is figure out how to make ourselves as hard to replace as possible.
The robots are coming for everyone eventually. The question is which economic system will those automates function in? The capitalist version with private ownership of the means of production and markets which distribute goods and services based on the ability to pay, or a democratic paradigm where distribution occurs from each according to his ability to each according to her needs?

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/27/kai-fu-lee-robots-will-replace-half-of-all-jobs.html

"Artificial intelligence will replace half of all jobs in the next decade, says widely followed technologist."

What happens when income becomes divorced from labor?

The answer is no doubt complicated, but it begins by deciding the purpose of an economy, imho.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_credit#Purpose_of_an_economy
 
Setting aside my own personal greed, I still don't feel that negatively towards Bezos, simply because he's someone who got rich because he built a better mousetrap
His wealth also comes from abusing his workers which might have made a few liberals upset once upon a time:

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/11/27/undercover-reporter-reveals-brutal-working-conditions-at-amazon

"Alone in a locked metal cage, 10 feet from my nearest colleague, a robot approaches from the shadows and thrusts a tower of shelves towards me.

"I have nine seconds to grab and process an item to be sent for packing – a target of 300 items an hour, for hour after relentless hour.

"As I bend to the floor then reach high above my head to fulfill a never-ending stream of orders, my body screams at me.

"Welcome to Amazon’s picking floor. Here, while cameras watch my every move, a screen in front of me offers constant reminders of my 'units per hour' and exactly how long each has taken.

"...Amazon does not have to enforce 10-hour workdays of heavy lifting.

"Instead, the company could hire more people and add more staff to help lighten the load.

"But that isn’t likely to happen, he concluded, because Amazon makes more money by treating workers as people who are easily replaced by the next wave of new hires."

Bezos is simply the latest parasite in a long line of capitalists who build "their" fortune by exploiting human labor.
 
you don't seem to understand how his net worth is calculated. It is not money in his bank account. It is mostly in the stock in his own company. He will not have money in his pocket until he sells that stock. The stock is worth that much because of his efforts to create and grow the company. He owns 17% of the company.
How did he buy the Washington Post without money in his bank account?

"Jeff Bezos, Riding High, Defends Decision to Buy Washington Post"

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/01/technology/jeff-bezos-riding-high-defends-decision-to-buy-washington-post.html
 

Arkady

President
His wealth also comes from abusing his workers which might have made a few liberals upset once upon a time:

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/11/27/undercover-reporter-reveals-brutal-working-conditions-at-amazon

"Alone in a locked metal cage, 10 feet from my nearest colleague, a robot approaches from the shadows and thrusts a tower of shelves towards me.

"I have nine seconds to grab and process an item to be sent for packing – a target of 300 items an hour, for hour after relentless hour.

"As I bend to the floor then reach high above my head to fulfill a never-ending stream of orders, my body screams at me.

"Welcome to Amazon’s picking floor. Here, while cameras watch my every move, a screen in front of me offers constant reminders of my 'units per hour' and exactly how long each has taken.

"...Amazon does not have to enforce 10-hour workdays of heavy lifting.

"Instead, the company could hire more people and add more staff to help lighten the load.

"But that isn’t likely to happen, he concluded, because Amazon makes more money by treating workers as people who are easily replaced by the next wave of new hires."

Bezos is simply the latest parasite in a long line of capitalists who build "their" fortune by exploiting human labor.
I don't doubt he exploits labor. But, with every single worker who works for him, the job he provides is better than the best other alternative they have, or they'd be working elsewhere. So, in that sense, they're better off because of him.

I'm far from convinced they'd be better off working for the kind of mom-and-pop stores Amazon is replacing. In fact, I assume they'd be worse off, since there are all sorts of labor protections that apply to big companies like Amazon, that little employers are at liberty to ignore. For example, if you have a family medical problem, Amazon has to accommodate that by way of FMLA, but a little mom and pop outfit is free to tell you to go screw yourself.

I also think big companies offer more opportunities for advancement. Distinguish yourself from your coworkers at a company like Amazon and you may start off on the bottom rung, but there's almost no limit to how high you can climb. Most mom and pop outfits are family companies, where unless you were lucky enough to be born into the family, you're stuck on the bottom rungs: no matter how much better you do than your coworkers, if they're cousins and in-laws of the family that runs things, and you aren't, those family members are going to be your bosses, and the best you can hope for is making them rich.

That's why my form of liberalism focuses not on shaming particular successful business people, like Bezos, but rather on actually changing the rules of the game. If he mistreats his workers in some way you can't stomach, pass a law that prevents ANYONE from mistreating workers that way (including the "small businesses" that American politicians tend to wax poetic about).

I've worked a "picking" job before, so I don't deny they suck. It's boring, exhausting work where there's no real sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. But I'd much rather work a picking job for Amazon than work the stock room in a small family-owned company where I'm not a member of the family. Amazon is going to be measuring "units per hour" very well, giving me a chance to impress, and if I do better than others, Amazon at least theoretically has a path to much better jobs up the ladder, rather than all those rungs being crowded by the complacent family members who know they'll always be favored thanks to their last names.
 
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