Topic: Some are hungry, some are losing their homes - some are doubling their wealth - page 2. (Read 665 times)

Well, they can go work for UPS and get to drive a unionized $30-per-hour delivery truck with benefits in about 25 years from now. They could also participate in the social experiment called "election" and make laws requiring high pay and all that other stuff and see if that improves their lives or results in unemployment.

Gig workers are modern day burger flippers. It's quite bizarre how we've come to expect a lot of dollars and benefits from that.

Amazon uses gig workers and contractors for a big part of its business, deliveries in particular. So there is no fixed salary, no fixed hours, no benefits, no healthcare, no nothing, just some dollars here and there with no regularity. Of course that's only in the countries that actually allow this to happen.

I think many rich people had to have sociopathic tendencies to get as far as they got and I don't really expect that we can shame them into sharing their wealth. And some sort of government tax or regulation that would make rich people or big corporations less rich or big might have unintended consequences for their employees and/or smaller businesses. Not saying that a better balance is not possible, just probably not as simple as pleading to billionaires or taxing them more.


Working in an air-conditioned warehouse for $14 an hour would have been my dream job back in the day when I was breaking concrete with a sledgehammer and paid under the table. I think we have shifted our expectations way too far. Those are not middle class 4-bedroom-house-and-a-picket-fence jobs and it's not Amazon's obligation to create middle class jobs (although they do have quite a few of those... if you got a Masters in CS and know what you're doing). Those are jobs for high-school graduates, sufficient for young single people to stand on their own feet and pay for community college.

I see that there are a lot of good answers, I don't think it makes too much sense to answer each one individually, so I will try to comment on some of your opinions.

BIT-BENDER, the rich get rich, and the poor get poorer - so it has always been, and people seem to have gotten used to it - but if we consider that the exact figure is that 90% of the world’s wealth is controlled by only 10% of the world’s people, then everyone should ask how is it possible that 90% of people are happy with the remaining 10%?

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suchmoon, i believe all these rich people have huge amounts of cash that is hidden somewhere in secret accounts, I don't believe they would be so stupid as to rely only on stocks. Still, I wouldn't agree that $1000 wouldn't help those who are literally hungry, but it's also completely unrealistic to expect the rich to change the world for the better - even all those charities they organize serve more to calm their consciences and turn out positive in society. If these people were a little more aware of what was going on in the world, they could do great things - one child can be fed some $20 (one meal a day) all year round in some third world countries. They all have millions of followers on social media, people look at some role models in them, and honestly I would never like to be in their shoes and with what they have in their brains.

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The Pharmacist, There are few small people who really profit from Amazon, all the cream is grabbed by big fish at the expense of those 800 000 employees who are actually exploited to the extreme because they have no other choice. But I agree that it's not just Bezos and his ilk who are to blame for this, the system allows them to do exactly what they do - and I can't call it anything other than modern slavery whether someone liked it or not.

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odolvlobo&Darker45, I would say that politicians have a lot to do with these rich people because no one can succeed to such an extent without filling the pockets of the politicians, and in return they pass laws that favor big fish. This whole vertical is actually to the detriment of a little man who is doomed to be at the bottom and live in the illusion of some kind of democracy (elections every 4 or 5 years).

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pixie85, it may sound weird, but I've never bought anything over Amazon - luckily I have good alternatives and I'm always looking for a way to pay with BTC if possible. Trust me I know a lot more people who have little and are much happier than some rich people, money can buy almost anything, but some things still don’t.

It's easy to share money that exceed the wildest dreams of the majority of the population. We usually want this or that and these things keep growing in value once we achieve a certain level. A sturent wants a new computer, a grown up man will want a computer room, a millionaire will want a room full of employees so that he won't have to use a computer anymore. Once you have it all and more, all the yahts, apartments, houses and cars, you're free to play the good guy and donate. Donating doesn't make Bezos a good guy. It's just his way to feel better about all the money that he's gathering.

That is the sad reality of life that poor people becomes poorer and the rich people become richer because of the social classifications that are dividing the society depending on the capacity and wealth that each and every individual have. At this time of pandemic brought by covid-19, we have seen that not just in America but in all parts of the world, the effect of this crisis have directly beaten up those people that belongs to the lower class of the society for they become jobless because of the implementing health protocols that makes temporary closure of work places and no one is allowed to go outside because of the quarantine. The situation makes it so hard for those people to budget and manage their expenses for they have no source of income and there is no assurance that they still have a job to came back.

Rich people mostly on the technological industry and food and goods essentials are still earning more due to high demands brought by this pandemic. We can say that the world and society itself is not really fair for those who are needy are continuously starving and those with power and continuously gaining after all.


I agree. After all that is happening the terrible systemic flaws of the society is always putting the poor people on the most disadvantageous position while rich people are being continuously greedy enjoying their wealth and some are not having any concern on helping their fellow men for they only think of their own sake.

I think the sad part here is that even though they donate billions and billions of dollars to the poor, the world will not get better. We can't do anything about this since this is already happening. As time goes, the poor people will be there at the bottom pushing themselves to go up but what they didn't know is that by doing that, they are also pushing those individuals at the top. Well folks, this is the world at its best, we should face it.

Hope they could just start more jobs so those unemployed individuals atleast make a movement in their low position. It might make the gap wider but atleast that could also create an effect under them.

I think there cannot be a bigger folly than directing all of this angst against the wealthy. This is a very political stance and the people that benefit from political stances are only those who call themselves leaders. Its a failure of leadership and politics that the common people are on their knees today despite the fact that the people on this list have worked their asses off to create products and services leading to such wealth.

Its not the businessman's problem that he has to navigate a world of greedy politicians and political parties that need unabated flow of funds to advertise themselves. The problem is not the money that businessmen make. The problem is that part of this money is sucked up by political parties and the businesses are manipulated by lawmakers to do the bidding for their party rather than for their ideology.

Not having proper stratification of wealth or the specter of homelessness and poverty in a country like USA is a political issue, not an economic one.

He deserves the backlash from the public for doing this, he should be the one taking care of his people but he do not want a hands of it so they ask people to help him


No one advice him that doing this will anger people because this is greediness this is the time people needs some help and he has all the money to do it but prefer the american people to do it for people who made him rich.

Honestly, even if I am glad that the richest are donating for the cause, I can't help but feel stupid that we're being happy about them dropping some scraps for us to survive. If this doesn't showcase how the relationship between the rich and the poor works, then I don't know what does. Still, not that I'm against them donating, in fact, I'm pretty happy for those that they reach out towards people who are in desperate need right now.
Equity then? That would require a lot of manpower to even take a look at how rich the rich people are, and calculating taxes about that. And I really doubt the government would do that, when they could just pocket a fraction of that for themselves with no problem since they're the ones managing it anyway. What stays inside, stays there after all.

That's just the reality in what others call a free world. At the end of the day, it isn't.

Those who have the money will be able to make more in spite of a pandemic. As a matter of fact, they can leverage the pandemic itself to create more wealth. On the other hand, as fully expected, the poor will stay poor without a pandemic and poorer in a pandemic.

This is not all about freedom. This is all about a terrible systemic flaw which always puts the poor at the most disadvantageous position.

Jeff Bezos and other millionaires have donated at least 1% of their wealth to the coronavirus.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/06/how-much-americas-richest-are-donating-for-coronavirus-relief.html

The pandemic has taught us that we must preserve the most important thing that is health and our loved ones. We are also concerned about work, many people around the world have lost their jobs.

After the pandemic, I think that all these people, the richest in the world, should help create sustainable jobs to reduce the global poverty rate.

You'd have to trust the government that it would fairly and efficiently distribute that tax revenue. I think a lot of people would rather be poor .


Yeah I think you're right, technically they're supposed to offer at least a money market fund but it's not available online so I probably need to call and beg, ugh.

Last time I just took a loan but I think loans have a fairly low max size like 50k.

You could always just allocate your 401K to cash, right? If you thought the bubble was about to pop. That wouldn't trigger any tax penalties either since you wouldn't be withdrawing anything.

Bezos obviously can't do that. His best bet in that scenario is to use company cash to buy back shares, thereby propping up the price and his wealth. Amazon has something like $5 billion set aside for that. They haven't dipped into it yet because its stock performance is just so strong.

But that means the system is fine and you just need rich people to be charitable for all to be happy. That's the narrative in the US and other places since the 70's, incarnated by Reagan and Thatcher in the 80's, but has it worked out ?

Wouldn't it be better if these rich people paid more taxes, or paid their underlings more at the detriment of their wealth, but with the result that less people would be living in poverty or at the edge of it ?

Bill Gates has already donated ~$50 billion to charities. That is roughly his total net worth 10 years ago. By not giving it all at once he's still got $100+ billion to donate over the years to come. He's by far the most charitable billionaire and has publicly pledged to donate more than half of his wealth and has been encouraging other rich people to do so.

I'm not a fan of Gates or how he made his money (I think Microsoft was engaged in extremely shitty business practices back in the day) but I think his charitable donations are an example for other billionaires to follow.

Bezos is not my role model but I cannot deny that I'd like to have as much money as him.

What can we little poor people do about them making money? Stop buying on Amazon?

It's the old saying that while the rich are getting richer the poor are getting poorer. Our parents knew it's how the world is and so do we. Democracy doesn't work when you can buy votes and sway the outcome in your favor.

Bill gates is rich enough to fund his foundation himself, but there are still people out there who would not mind to donate to a good course and his foundation is that, and those are the individuals he is reaching out to for donations. It is not like he's robbing people of their money or something (mind you, it's voluntary). And if you consider how large the foundation is, as well as it's assets, it's obvious majority of the funds is coming from the wealthy and that's not a problem for them.

I can't really see a reason to blame the rich people for anything, you look at their assets and ask why they haven't paid their workers or why they ask for donations for their employees, but in business, what matters is what the company or organization is making at that time, if the company is struggling to make any income, obviously paying workers will be a problem, the billionaire wouldn't pay from his personal funds. That being said, this rich individuals are also donors to other foundations, sectors, groups etc.

I think in the case of these billionaires (maybe not all of them), they haven't a clear view of what society should be like. With their wealth, they should be leading the way, but instead they're mostly preoccupied by running their companies and making more money. Even Bill Gates, I mean, he's not running Microsoft anymore, he's running his foundation, that does good things, but why does he ask people to donate to it ? He could fund it entirely by himself.

Then there are politicians, and in the US, they're bought off by wealthy people. Even Biden, when/if elected, might mitigate some things, but he won't change the system.

The US economy could work as well if not better, while providing for free healthcare and education for everyone, but nobody rich enough is actually promoting it, and buying politicians to make it happen.

In my opinion, the primary causes of wealth inequality have been the actions of governments to solve economic problems through social, fiscal and monetary policies. Whether or not wealthy people are intended to benefit from these policies, they are able to make use of them more effectively than the rest of the population, and so ultimately they benefit the most.

An obvious example is quantitative easing. Though the purpose is to give everyone more money in order to stimulate the economy, it actually benefits wealthy people much more than everyone else by supporting prices of debt and equity, and by lowering the risks of investments. It is absurd to believe that the best way to help people suffering financially is to give money to banks and investors.

So rather than putting the blame on wealthy people, the blame should be put on the politicians and the bureaucrats that concoct those policies that are ultimately destructive.