What do you think about Amazon and Jeff Bezos?

[Iris-Grimoire]

Yup! And claiming it's all for the advancement of humanity or some shit, but on the matters of surviving until we actually get results, nah, quarterly reports are more important.

[sushy00]

That hoarding of money is actually damaging to the economy too. If only a few people have a lot of money, they're never going to spend it a lot (or maybe on stuff like Bitcoin and real estate). If you give that money to lots of poor people, they're going to buy furniture, cars, food, pillows etc, generating way more business.

[sushy00]

we already went to the moon right No need to go to space now to prove that.

[LunarScyphozoa]

If he really wanted improvement he would’ve just donated to NASA like a decent human being

[chestnutriceeee]

To be fair, I don't think anyone who has that much money will ever consider donating to NASA instead of going to space themselves. With that age and money, even the most humble and kind of people would much rather fulfil their selfish desires while giving their money to their own agencies. Blue Origin was founded back in 2000, it makes much more sense for him to invest in that himself.

On a completely different note, these simple space trips have pushed all big countries into a space race. There was no way they would work together anyway. So if they can consider finally investing in space technology by competing with each other, it's probably a winning scenario.

This is not my opinion on Bezos, of course. There were much better ways to spend the same amount of money by sending real astronauts and conducting research. No one needs nor deserves that much money.

[thecrystalrook]

Also I want to add that people with that amount of money can buy anyone or anything. Politicians, CEOs, other companies (squash out their competition), law suits, police, military, land etc.

[Kaydreamer]

There needs to be clarification here that having a vision does not make you an evil person. We all have a vision here as writers and illustrators. But, part of your vision should include the humane treatment of any of your potential workers.

While Jeff Bezos himself doesn't walk around cracking a whip at his employees, the company he created and today profits off of is responsible. I need to make this as clear as possible, becoming a billionaire is not possible without mass exploitation of the working class. You need a massive amount of workers, working absurd hours, for little pay. It's an unfathomable amount of money that the mass majority will never even come close to achieving. Imagine how long it can take the average person to reach $1 million. Now do that again 1000 times. You cannot even reasonably spend that amount of money in a single lifetime. This is why we judge Bezos and other billionaires as harshly as we do. He hoards wealth and will never put it back into the economy. What's worse, he works no harder than a typical office worker (you can look up his daily routine, he's talked about it in interviews. It's really boring) and reaps in absurd amounts of money as his shares of Amazon increase in value. And it's easy enough for him to liquidate chunks of it when he needs it given the demand of Amazon stock. Meanwhile, his workers are breaking their asses, peeing in bottles, literally dying on the job (guy had a heart attack and was left there for 20 minutes) but GOD FORBID you take a bathroom break.

I can confirm the poor working conditions. A good friend of mine worked in one of their warehouses for a couple of years. He was literally doing the work of 2 people and was fantastic at his job. He got fired because he had 2 minutes of unclocked time on one occasion so he could use the bathroom.

Now, as for the "yet you continue to buy from them" argument. It's nearly impossible for many to avoid. If you're in a food desert, you probably rely on them to get groceries. Or often they're just the cheapest option. Or you don't have a car, so delivery is your only option and Amazon just happens to be the fastest. Moreso, Amazon makes majority of their money through AWS. So if you use Twitch, Netflix etc, you are still supporting them indirectly. To make this clear, participating in a structure of capitalism does not make you a hypocrite. Participation in the system is forced to survive.

tldr; a person with this amount of money and with a company as large as amazon is dangerous

Absolutely brilliant post. You really summed up the absurd injustice of it.

He could easily make changes to ensure his workers are well treated. It's the bare minimum expected of a decent person, wealth aside. But he hasn't. I don't think he cares.

[sevenstarsofeightIam]

Bezos? I think he should grow some hair. Rich people in space? It's an ego trip.

Must be nice to have money.

Can you imagine me trying to conquer space? I'm sitting there in my cardboard box; I strike a match to the bottom.

"Oh! Excuse me. Looks like I landed before I took off."

About Amazon. I have a book on Amazon, but I guess it's on a back shelf. I Have an Amazon account, but I haven't ordered anything yet. I am dubious about ordering on the internet and having boxes stolen from my front porch. They got some cool stuff, though.

[Fun-SizeMojo]

That link is so crazy! I had not thought about the unimaginable scale of that before!

[Mallory]

With an extremely rare exception (if I need something for my disability and cannot find it for sale anywhere else), I do not shop at Amazon. As for Bezos and his vision, well...

... I can easily name a few other people with "visions". Many of them carried out genocides, ethnic cleansings, and started local and global wars that lead to the suffering of hundreds of thousands to millions of people. It's just, under capitalist ideals, the kind of suffering Bezos and his ilk inflict on other people is "acceptable" and therefore we "cannot hate them". Yeah, screw that. If your vision involves the suffering of others who are just trying to live their lives in peace, you can go on a one-way trip to space with no space suit.

[VibrantFox]

Answering a question with a question: Why am I obligated to care about an individual, and by extension a collection of individuals, who couldn't care less if I dropped dead yesterday?

Even in the amiable facades they put up their personal views are pretty clear if you know how to interpret the things they say. Discernment doesn't exist for no reason at all, it's just a mater of how fine tuned your perception skills are.

[vothnthorvaldson]

I did not buy anything from Amazon itself since over 10 years and I do everything to avoid Amazon companies. I probably got fooled a few times, but not significantly as I buy almost only from small businesses.
I am aware that some of these small businesses may rely on Amazon to a point, but I cannot verify everything, and it still does the job of helping the competition keep a better shape, on a small scale.
For music for example, I only buy directly from the artist, or rarely, from the direct distributor.

[indagold]

Rich do what rich do. Like some poop in gold crusted toilets

I hate ordering off amazon because its full of scammers and the site looks like a scam lol

[NickRowler]

I don't really shop on Amazon too often. To the point that I have regifted Amazon gift cards. I think having "everything" at your fingertips in not really that healthy and I prefer to go to a store to buy it.

I feel like people in general rely too much on the site. And I feel like people who are disgusted by the work conditions and Bezos, maybe should at least try to cut back on spending on the site.

[YS_og]

[sushy00]

that is a powerful illustration!

[YS_og]

Thanks, I wish I knew who to credit!!! It was sent to me by a friend yesterday