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curl-6 9 hours ago
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Chrkeller said:
curl-6 said:

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.   

It is a thorny issue, yes, but when you're the CEO, the buck ultimately stops with you when it comes to poor working conditions and wages.

You're absolutely right in that it's ultimately a problem with the system rather than any one individual, but when a tiny percentage of society have immense wealth while the majority struggle to get by, it's only natural people are going to get increasingly angry at the imbalance.

To put things in perspective, in 1965, a CEO made about 21 times more than a worker; nowadays a CEO makes nearly 300 times what a worker makes. So in just 60 years, the gap has ballooned by almost a factor of x15.

If this trajectory continues, we're at risk of reverting to an almost feudal society where the oligarchs at the top have absolute power and the other 98% live like serfs.

Last edited by curl-6 - 9 hours ago