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I hate how the term privilege is thrown around these days, but man, this bizarre narrative reeks of privilege and some marxist fantasy. Bezos is in his positio

I hate how the term privilege is thrown around these days, but man, this bizarre narrative reeks of privilege and some marxist fantasy. Bezos is in his position because of his competency. He built the thing. Democracy is not a virtue in a workplace.

jhbadger 6y ago
When people say a CEO "built" their company, I'm reminded of when people say the Pharoh Kufu "built" the Great Pyramid. It kind of ignores the people who did the actual work. He's the CEO because he had a lot of money from Wall Street and could hire his staff. He was never tested on his competency. The real world is not a meritocracy.
- mjfl 6y ago
  The employees of Amazon have never been slaves and the comparison is disingenuous. Saying he was never tested on his competency is ridiculous. There were literally millions of people in the USA richer than Bezos at the time he started Amazon. There are many people on Wall Street who were *orders of magnitude* richer than Bezos that tried to start internet companies that crashed and burned.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- warkdarrior 6y ago
  > [Bezos] was never tested on his competency. This is extremely naive. There are lots of failed CEOs and failed companies. Amazon survived AND grew over 20 years while actively fighting off competition from Walmart, Google, etc.
  - jhbadger 6y ago
    But luck is a major factor in this. If in ten years, Amazon tanks, history will say Bezos was a bad CEO. There is never a real demonstration that skill is involved. Some companies win and some companies lose.
    - mjfl 6y ago
      In 10 years it's more likely that the US govt will declare bankruptcy than Amazon.
koshnaranek 6y ago
These laws and regulations developed not just randomly but because corporations treated workers almost like slaves.
- spectramax 6y ago
  Slaves? Like employees are forced to work, they have no choice in the matter, they're chained and cannot leave Amazon? Either you're diluting what Slavery means or proposing the former which is false. Every single employee at Amazon is free to go work for Walmart, Uber, local lumber yard, grocery stores or whatever.

jhbadger 6y ago

When people say a CEO "built" their company, I'm reminded of when people say the Pharoh Kufu "built" the Great Pyramid. It kind of ignores the people who did the actual work. He's the CEO because he had a lot of money from Wall Street and could hire his staff. He was never tested on his competency. The real world is not a meritocracy.

mjfl 6y ago
The employees of Amazon have never been slaves and the comparison is disingenuous. Saying he was never tested on his competency is ridiculous. There were literally millions of people in the USA richer than Bezos at the time he started Amazon. There are many people on Wall Street who were *orders of magnitude* richer than Bezos that tried to start internet companies that crashed and burned.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
warkdarrior 6y ago
> [Bezos] was never tested on his competency. This is extremely naive. There are lots of failed CEOs and failed companies. Amazon survived AND grew over 20 years while actively fighting off competition from Walmart, Google, etc.
- jhbadger 6y ago
  But luck is a major factor in this. If in ten years, Amazon tanks, history will say Bezos was a bad CEO. There is never a real demonstration that skill is involved. Some companies win and some companies lose.
  - mjfl 6y ago
    In 10 years it's more likely that the US govt will declare bankruptcy than Amazon.

koshnaranek 6y ago

These laws and regulations developed not just randomly but because corporations treated workers almost like slaves.

spectramax 6y ago
Slaves? Like employees are forced to work, they have no choice in the matter, they're chained and cannot leave Amazon? Either you're diluting what Slavery means or proposing the former which is false. Every single employee at Amazon is free to go work for Walmart, Uber, local lumber yard, grocery stores or whatever.