like all other mega rich people. He will pay death taxes, and his heirs will spend quickly what they inherit.

And there are financial methods of avoiding most estate taxes. Bezos, in my view, is a thief who enriches himself at the expense of everyone else.

But if you notice, Bezos, Gates, Buffet, etc did NOT have Billionaire parents. Those people got rich by themselves.

Bezos resembles the Walton founder in his reliance on low wages and harsh working conditions, while cultivating the image of a modern, enlightened employer. Much media coverage focuses on the very few highly paid office professionals while ignoring the conditions in Amazon warehouses.

Have you seen what rich people blow their money on? If they spend faster than they make they could easily do it.

workers a living wage. That would cause a large boost to the overall economy and other low wage employers would have to raise wages to compete.

That is very wishful thinking, but the bottom line is that the billionaires don't care. And for them there's no such thing as having too much money. It's not enough they made $600,000,000 last quarter, they need to make $750,000,000 because the other guy made $700,000,000. It's insane and it needs to stop.

He will do what Buffet and Gates have done. Create a foundation, run by their children, and leave the money to the foundation.

If we don’t do something soon it’ll be gone entirely.

Amazon has a number of warehouses in the Chicago area, and few of those jobs pay anything near a living wage, while Bezos demands tax breaks.

It will take another resurgence of unionization to combat the exploitation. I don't know if this is possible.

Some of the tech billionaires have consciences. Some have none,i.e. Bezos and Jobs. Usually libertarian.

I can't believe all the cities groveling to be the east coast headquarters for Amazon. They are willing to give away everything.

for the workers.

and have Bezo's fortune be subsidized by other parts of America's tax payers.

The WalMart model.

The food stamp allotment.

You would think....

but the billionaire class does not.

And those good wages would stimulate the economy and grow Amazon as the workers would be able to spend more.

don't have their billions in stacks of hundred dollar bills sitting in a bank vault somewhere.

Their net worth is directly tied to and a reflection of the share price of the stock they own in the companies they founded.

I am not saying this to defend their positions, not by any means. Bezos is clearly a guy who believes he should not have to pay one red cent more than he has to for anything, from labor to taxes and on, but again, it isn't as if this guy is sitting on a mountain of gold coins like some modern day Scrooge McDuck.

The market, and at the end of the day, that is you and me, could bankrupt Bezos TOMORROW if everyone collectively decided they weren't going to do business with him any longer.

But the economy does not work that way. Amazon undercuts other businesses by offering lower prices, and like WalMart, those low prices rely on low wage workers and also forcing their suppliers to lower their own prices.

so what?

Sure it does. Since the beginning of time.


Exactly, and that, along with the convenience of not having to leave the house to get almost ANYTHING you want, is why their customers continue to do business with them and why they have been successful

Yes and no, but OK...again, so what?

The rise and rapid expansion of Wal-Mart, particularly in the south, perfectly parallels the farming real estate crash of the 80's. Wal-Mart was able to buy land for a fraction of it's real worth all across the south in those days while at the same time exploiting the cost saving revolution that had been occurring with international shipping, to wit: the standardized shipping container.

Amazon does not need a 50 acre tract every 40 miles because they have the internet, plus UPS, FED-EX and the USPS to provide mobile storage space for them.

Bezos started out as an online book seller.

Now just about the only things you can't buy at Amazon.com are airplanes and automobiles.

Don't hold your breath waiting for that to change.

Amazon is successful because it provides a service people value and are willing to return to. When that changes, his company will change or go away. Just as with A&P, Sears & Roebuck and all the others that have come and gone before them.

And it also buys politicians.

Folks that can't afford it.
Like me.

high deductible insurance plans...this is the norm and it needs to change. But Amazon actually pays better.

People like Bezos thought they should keep it all to themselves.

He could start by doubling the wages and benefits of each and every employee at Amazon. That would be a good start.

Then he could campaign for a huge increase in the amount of taxes he, and people like him, should pay. They could start at 70% and go up.

All the new revenues would go to re-building our country, including the education system.

And thus far, there is no evidence of any of that.

That they pay a fair share into the progress of our society.

When business is bad they send them home even if the drove some distance to get there. Amazon pays more than that. What Bezos does is what most companies do...where my husband works the line starts at $9.00 per hour....wake up. we need a higher minimum and to get rid of Trump's tax shit.

He pays off my mortgage.

because he understood that higher wages promoted economic activity.

The real reason is that assembly line work was incredibly stressful and taxing compared to other unskilled labor available at the time, and employee turnover was killing his business.

Sounds more like a wall street dictator to me.