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He has $150 bn in stock that he could just distribute to his employees.

by jtolmar 8y ago

jacques_chester 8y ago
It would not remain worth $150 billion if he did. It would crash quite spectacularly.
- RugnirViking 8y ago
  You realise that right now he has personally the money to give each and every one of his employees $256 000 in cash or stock options. Thats more than many of his employees make in 5 years. Most of these people don't own their own house. Many of them have probably never travelled outside of the country. That's not his entire company, thats just his own personal wealth. Imagine if his c-suite and upper management all pitched in too.
  - jacques_chester 8y ago
    He does not have it as money, he has shares. Rich people do not hold substantial cash or bank deposits; at their scale it is almost criminally wasteful to do so. His shares are market-priced. He is "worth" $150Bn because of today's share price, but there is no single pool of money available to buy him out. So in practice, he is worth a billion here, a billion there, so long as he doesn't scare the fishes. If he transferred his shares to his employees, the price would crash and each employee's slice of the pie would not be worth $256,000 any more. The same goes for creating a massive new supply of RSUs or share options. These dilute existing shareholders who, unsurprisingly, resent that other people get for free or at a discount what they paid for at market price. Accounting rules require these to be considered as expenses, meaning the reported profit or loss looks worse. What would work better for Amazon's lowest-paid workers would be a higher wage. It's a more predictable and effective source of wealth sharing than showering lottery tickets from a helicopter.
    - RugnirViking 8y ago
      The point was not to suggest that he actually did that. The point of my comment was to illustrate the incredible amount of wealth he has earned that runs counter to the idea that amazon can't afford to raise wages.

He has $150 bn in stock that he could just distribute to his employees.

jacques_chester 8y ago

It would not remain worth $150 billion if he did. It would crash quite spectacularly.

RugnirViking 8y ago
You realise that right now he has personally the money to give each and every one of his employees $256 000 in cash or stock options. Thats more than many of his employees make in 5 years. Most of these people don't own their own house. Many of them have probably never travelled outside of the country. That's not his entire company, thats just his own personal wealth. Imagine if his c-suite and upper management all pitched in too.
- jacques_chester 8y ago
  He does not have it as money, he has shares. Rich people do not hold substantial cash or bank deposits; at their scale it is almost criminally wasteful to do so. His shares are market-priced. He is "worth" $150Bn because of today's share price, but there is no single pool of money available to buy him out. So in practice, he is worth a billion here, a billion there, so long as he doesn't scare the fishes. If he transferred his shares to his employees, the price would crash and each employee's slice of the pie would not be worth $256,000 any more. The same goes for creating a massive new supply of RSUs or share options. These dilute existing shareholders who, unsurprisingly, resent that other people get for free or at a discount what they paid for at market price. Accounting rules require these to be considered as expenses, meaning the reported profit or loss looks worse. What would work better for Amazon's lowest-paid workers would be a higher wage. It's a more predictable and effective source of wealth sharing than showering lottery tickets from a helicopter.
  - RugnirViking 8y ago
    The point was not to suggest that he actually did that. The point of my comment was to illustrate the incredible amount of wealth he has earned that runs counter to the idea that amazon can't afford to raise wages.