Blue Origin rocket explosion: watch $150 million go boom

[Chrkeller]

curl-6 said:

Nuvendil said:

Oh I get why people don't like rich people, when they do something stupid or greedy the impacts ripple out a lot and plenty are dicks or politically...problematic.

But I don't actually regard Jeff in that light.  His wealth is mostly just his one company that he started and grew, a company that provides plenty of benefits to customers and a huge number of jobs from working class to middle class and higher.  And the infrastructure and marketplace it built opened numerous doors previously unheard of for literally millions of entrepreneurs.

I'm not saying it's a perfect company, far from it.  Nor am I saying we should build statues to the guy.  But I sometimes get the very unsettling feeling that people regard "the wealthy" as bordering on subhuman, which is quite disturbing.

I would just say, criticize or hate on them for when they screw up, but don't cheer when they're trying to do something positive and it fails.  That's just dumb.

The thing, people like Jeff get rich off the back of other people's hard work.

How many Amazon packages does he personally deliver? What percent of the wealth generated by the company does he keep for himself for sitting behind a desk all day, versus paying a fair share to the workers who actually bust their arses to keep the company running?

People don't hate the rich just because they're rich, but because they get that way by screwing over the rest of society. I recommend you look into how Amazon workers are treated, all that profit comes at a steep cost to those who work there.

Hoarding more wealth than you could ever need in ten lifetimes while the people who work for you to make that money struggle to survive does seem to "border on subhuman" to a lot of folks.

1) He wasn't born rich.  He put a lot of effort into building his wealth.  It wasn't handed to him.  

2) While I tend to agree that people don't need billions, the fact is your view is way too simplistic.  Most billionaires are not sitting on cash; they have loads of stocks.  Typically, SEC approval and board approval is required to sells massive amounts of stock, given a huge sell off would drive the company into ruin.  So, someone like Bezos isn't exactly hoarding, that isn't how stock works.  I agree there is a problem that should be fixed, but we should be fair on how the system works.   

10b5‑1 (might want to read up on it)  

85-90% of his wealth is Amazon stock, which he can't just unload.  

And major compensation changes, for a publicly traded company like Amazon, require Board oversight.  Bezos can't just do whatever he wants.

Again, I agree there is a problem, but it lies more with the system than the people, I see (no offense) too many people grossly oversimplifying how all this actually works. 

The view that Bezos could wave his hand and double salaries and has billions of cash he could give away...  none of that is true.   

Last edited by Chrkeller - 23 hours ago