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> I strongly prefer a society which permits the existence of Jeff Bezos over one which does not. Can you expand? What did Bezos contribute to society?

simonh 3y ago
He built a company employing over a million people, created novel goods and services, including services my job depends on (AWS). The wealth of a man like Bezos isn't a pile of gold he wallows in like Scrooge McDuck, it exists in his shareholder control of a vast set of companies full of employees and doing productive work. These companies would not exist without his ability to identify new markets, build efficient companies, and raise capital and deploy it effectively. Take away the ability to do that, and who is going to found the new companies? Who is going to fund and control them? Who is going to identify the new goods and services of the future, and make them happen? There is an alternative, and that's run the economy as a bureaucratic extension of government. Run companies as extensions of government departments and place economic planning under political control. It's been tried over and over.
- rsoto2 3y ago
  Workers created all those things not Jeff Bezos. A lot of the services and technologies leveraged by AWS are created via open source projects for example PostGres.
  - poncho_romero 3y ago
    And in addition, if we grant the idea that Bezos created those things, it was not the super rich Bezos we have today who did. The parent commenter is arguing for the existence of a Jeff Bezos who is not the Jeff Bezos who exists today—rather they want a significantly poorer Bezos, because that is the Bezos who accomplished those feats
  - jimbokun 3y ago
    Managing and growing companies is a distinct skill. Open source software is wonderful and amazing. But it's not a replacement for Amazon and other companies.
    - Biganon 3y ago
      > Managing and growing companies is a distinct skill. Yes. It is not, however, a skill worth 100 billion dollars.
    - rsoto2 3y ago
      There are now at least five major cloud providers so something tells me it's not a 'bolt of lightning idea' and it's actually rather easy with some funding behind you.
- laserlight 3y ago
  > He built a company employing over a million people, created novel goods and services, including services my job depends on (AWS). And if Bezos had not founded Amazon, you and others would have been unemployed and poor? > Take away the ability to do that, and who is going to found the new companies? Other people. There are many people who are driven by their non-financial passions that would benefit society. History is full of philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, doctors who weren't after money, yet managed to contribute more than Bezos ever could. PS: I have no problems with Bezos, to clarify.
  - jimbokun 3y ago
    > And if Bezos had not founded Amazon, you and others would have been unemployed and poor? If nobody founded companies like Amazon, yes many more people would be unemployed and poor. Bezos is just one example. > History is full of philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, doctors who weren't after money, yet managed to contribute more than Bezos ever could. If all the philosophers, mathematicians and scientists and doctors were put in charge of running all the world's companies, we'd be in big trouble. Totally different skill sets.
    - devbent 3y ago
      > If all the philosophers, mathematicians and scientists and doctors were put in charge of running all the world's companies, we'd be in big trouble. Totally different skill sets. Eh, worked well enough for Singapore. Also it worked well enough for the founding of many great companies. Ford, GE, Intel, Microsoft, Google, companies started by people who were experts in their field. Traditionally that is how things went. Sadly the meme of a dedicated management class has taken hold on America and we've decided that people who actually understand what a business does aren't needed to run the business. That leads to crap like airplanes falling apart, software companies who are just barely able to release software, and hospitals that are so misran they are unable to afford actually treating patients.
      - Jensson 3y ago
        > Ford, GE, Intel, Microsoft, Google, companies started by people who were experts in their field. Amazon as well, Jeff Bezos has a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer science, he doesn't have a typical management only background. But yeah in general successful companies were made by experts, not the management nobility class.
jimbokun 3y ago
Amazon.

simonh 3y ago

He built a company employing over a million people, created novel goods and services, including services my job depends on (AWS). The wealth of a man like Bezos isn't a pile of gold he wallows in like Scrooge McDuck, it exists in his shareholder control of a vast set of companies full of employees and doing productive work. These companies would not exist without his ability to identify new markets, build efficient companies, and raise capital and deploy it effectively. Take away the ability to do that, and who is going to found the new companies? Who is going to fund and control them? Who is going to identify the new goods and services of the future, and make them happen? There is an alternative, and that's run the economy as a bureaucratic extension of government. Run companies as extensions of government departments and place economic planning under political control. It's been tried over and over.

rsoto2 3y ago
Workers created all those things not Jeff Bezos. A lot of the services and technologies leveraged by AWS are created via open source projects for example PostGres.
- poncho_romero 3y ago
  And in addition, if we grant the idea that Bezos created those things, it was not the super rich Bezos we have today who did. The parent commenter is arguing for the existence of a Jeff Bezos who is not the Jeff Bezos who exists today—rather they want a significantly poorer Bezos, because that is the Bezos who accomplished those feats
- jimbokun 3y ago
  Managing and growing companies is a distinct skill. Open source software is wonderful and amazing. But it's not a replacement for Amazon and other companies.
  - Biganon 3y ago
    > Managing and growing companies is a distinct skill. Yes. It is not, however, a skill worth 100 billion dollars.
  - rsoto2 3y ago
    There are now at least five major cloud providers so something tells me it's not a 'bolt of lightning idea' and it's actually rather easy with some funding behind you.
laserlight 3y ago
> He built a company employing over a million people, created novel goods and services, including services my job depends on (AWS). And if Bezos had not founded Amazon, you and others would have been unemployed and poor? > Take away the ability to do that, and who is going to found the new companies? Other people. There are many people who are driven by their non-financial passions that would benefit society. History is full of philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, doctors who weren't after money, yet managed to contribute more than Bezos ever could. PS: I have no problems with Bezos, to clarify.
- jimbokun 3y ago
  > And if Bezos had not founded Amazon, you and others would have been unemployed and poor? If nobody founded companies like Amazon, yes many more people would be unemployed and poor. Bezos is just one example. > History is full of philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, doctors who weren't after money, yet managed to contribute more than Bezos ever could. If all the philosophers, mathematicians and scientists and doctors were put in charge of running all the world's companies, we'd be in big trouble. Totally different skill sets.
  - devbent 3y ago
    > If all the philosophers, mathematicians and scientists and doctors were put in charge of running all the world's companies, we'd be in big trouble. Totally different skill sets. Eh, worked well enough for Singapore. Also it worked well enough for the founding of many great companies. Ford, GE, Intel, Microsoft, Google, companies started by people who were experts in their field. Traditionally that is how things went. Sadly the meme of a dedicated management class has taken hold on America and we've decided that people who actually understand what a business does aren't needed to run the business. That leads to crap like airplanes falling apart, software companies who are just barely able to release software, and hospitals that are so misran they are unable to afford actually treating patients.
    - Jensson 3y ago
      > Ford, GE, Intel, Microsoft, Google, companies started by people who were experts in their field. Amazon as well, Jeff Bezos has a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer science, he doesn't have a typical management only background. But yeah in general successful companies were made by experts, not the management nobility class.

jimbokun 3y ago

Amazon.