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> "Why on earth should [..] all be conglomerated into one corporate entity controlled by one person?" > Because they built it. This is an entirely fictional i

by tobr 6y ago

> "Why on earth should [..] all be conglomerated into one corporate entity controlled by one person?" > Because they built it. This is an entirely fictional idea. Consider who this language serves. Bezos started the company, but how does it make sense to say he “built” all of the businesses mentioned? They were built by many thousands of people, but they barely own what they created. Bezos has abused his position as founder to capitalize on their work. If he hadn’t started the company, these people would still have found ways to build things, perhaps even under less heinous conditions.

logicchains 6y ago
>If he hadn’t started the company, these people would still have found ways to build things, perhaps even under less heinous conditions. If they had the opportunity to build things in better conditions, why aren't they already doing that? Look at it this way, if nobody did what Bezos did, nobody quit their job to try starting a business (bearing in mind something like over 90% of businesses fail, so it's a significant risk), then there wouldn't be any jobs. We'd all still be subsistence farmers. And this is essentially the condition that the world was in before we had a government/legal system that allowed people to create and grow businesses free from molestation. If not for Bezos, Amazon wouldn't exist, and all the beneft people gained from the superior convenience, prices and delivery speed it offered compared to competitors would have been lost.
- JoeAltmaier 6y ago
  Nonsense. That's the 'great man' theory. Its clear from history that when the time has come, the business appears. There were many online retail operations when Bezos came on the scene. If Amazon hadn't happened, then another company would have. Heck, Amazon isn't even Amazon any more. Its a two- or three-removed reinvention of what Amazon started out to be.
  - logicchains 6y ago
    >If Amazon hadn't happened, then another company would have. It would have happened later, so everybody's standard of living would have been a little lower. The more you discourage people from starting businesses, the fewer people try to start businesses, so successful new business are created more slowly, and the economy grows slower. It's also more likely the company will appear first in another country more friendly to business, and then the original country will lose out on the revenue, jobs and soft power it might have gained from that country operating there.
    - JoeAltmaier 6y ago
      Depends on how much you respect what Amazon does. Perhaps we'd all be better off.

by tobr 6y ago

logicchains 6y ago

>If he hadn’t started the company, these people would still have found ways to build things, perhaps even under less heinous conditions. If they had the opportunity to build things in better conditions, why aren't they already doing that? Look at it this way, if nobody did what Bezos did, nobody quit their job to try starting a business (bearing in mind something like over 90% of businesses fail, so it's a significant risk), then there wouldn't be any jobs. We'd all still be subsistence farmers. And this is essentially the condition that the world was in before we had a government/legal system that allowed people to create and grow businesses free from molestation. If not for Bezos, Amazon wouldn't exist, and all the beneft people gained from the superior convenience, prices and delivery speed it offered compared to competitors would have been lost.

JoeAltmaier 6y ago
Nonsense. That's the 'great man' theory. Its clear from history that when the time has come, the business appears. There were many online retail operations when Bezos came on the scene. If Amazon hadn't happened, then another company would have. Heck, Amazon isn't even Amazon any more. Its a two- or three-removed reinvention of what Amazon started out to be.
- logicchains 6y ago
  >If Amazon hadn't happened, then another company would have. It would have happened later, so everybody's standard of living would have been a little lower. The more you discourage people from starting businesses, the fewer people try to start businesses, so successful new business are created more slowly, and the economy grows slower. It's also more likely the company will appear first in another country more friendly to business, and then the original country will lose out on the revenue, jobs and soft power it might have gained from that country operating there.
  - JoeAltmaier 6y ago
    Depends on how much you respect what Amazon does. Perhaps we'd all be better off.