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> I'd rather see them paying fair wages and taxes. Unless you're in the "billionaires must not exist" camp, which we could argue about, they'll still be very r

> I'd rather see them paying fair wages and taxes. Unless you're in the "billionaires must not exist" camp, which we could argue about, they'll still be very rich, given the scale and success of their businesses. A net worth of $50 billion vs $150 billion doesn't change all that much, for the U.S. treasury or Bezos. > It's hugely inappropriate that they make billions while their workers struggle to pay rent. There are many thousands of Amazon workers making six figure salaries. Thousands that making millions per year. These people are not struggling to pay rent. Amazon has also saved millions of low income people money through their services, not to mention the billions of taxes generated by their businesses. They're not some purely predatory business, like cigarette and alcohol companies. Billions of people benefit from Amazon.com and AWS-powered services every day of their lives. The fact that low skilled jobs pay crap is in no way unique to Amazon, they just happen to employ more than any other single organization. I'm fully onboard for a UBI policy in the US and I doubt Bezos or Musk would object for reasons of greed. The caricature of these guys being extremely greedy is fairly ignorant. Greediness is not what made them so rich. > These rockets seem more like modern day pyramids, only difference is that they will not last 3000 years. There's some other major differences, like they can actually make humanity space-faring, multi-planetary, provide world-wide high speed internet to poor villages, move toxic industries off-world, etc. Even the pyramids were not all bad, although the best you can say about them is that they were jobs programs, and a better use of human resources than fighting useless wars.

varispeed 5y ago
> Unless you're in the "billionaires must not exist" camp, which we could argue about, they'll still be very rich, given the scale and success of their businesses. A net worth of $50 billion vs $150 billion doesn't change all that much, for the U.S. treasury or Bezos. They should be okay with $10 million. Average worker will never be able to accumulate even $1 million during their lifetime. > There are many thousands of Amazon workers making six figure salaries. Amazon has 1,298,000 workers. The 1% you are referring to, does not make Amazon a good company. Furthermore, given how much money Bezos was able to skim, the six figures are still laughable. > The fact that low skilled jobs pay crap is in no way unique to Amazon Yes, because we don't have proper regulation - like making sure highest pay is no more than 10x of lowest pay or linking minimum wage to company global revenue (with a minimum threshold). > and I doubt Bezos or Musk would object for reasons of greed. They would object, because people on UBI wouldn't have to work in their sweatshops. > like they can actually make humanity space-faring, Corporations are not motivated by humanity > provide world-wide high speed internet to poor villages To help with surveillance, data mining and control. > move toxic industries off-world, etc. Only if it is profitable. More likely they would move banking off-world to shield themselves from paying taxes.

varispeed 5y ago

> Unless you're in the "billionaires must not exist" camp, which we could argue about, they'll still be very rich, given the scale and success of their businesses. A net worth of $50 billion vs $150 billion doesn't change all that much, for the U.S. treasury or Bezos. They should be okay with $10 million. Average worker will never be able to accumulate even $1 million during their lifetime. > There are many thousands of Amazon workers making six figure salaries. Amazon has 1,298,000 workers. The 1% you are referring to, does not make Amazon a good company. Furthermore, given how much money Bezos was able to skim, the six figures are still laughable. > The fact that low skilled jobs pay crap is in no way unique to Amazon Yes, because we don't have proper regulation - like making sure highest pay is no more than 10x of lowest pay or linking minimum wage to company global revenue (with a minimum threshold). > and I doubt Bezos or Musk would object for reasons of greed. They would object, because people on UBI wouldn't have to work in their sweatshops. > like they can actually make humanity space-faring, Corporations are not motivated by humanity > provide world-wide high speed internet to poor villages To help with surveillance, data mining and control. > move toxic industries off-world, etc. Only if it is profitable. More likely they would move banking off-world to shield themselves from paying taxes.