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Re:Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and... by pb7 on Wednesday July 21, 2021 @08:07PM (#27913744)
No. I want people to keep being incentivized to create innovative companies, products, and services that make my life easier and more enjoyable. The people that are successful in doing so will reap rewards many orders of magnitude more than their employees that did not take on any risk and whose output is measured by “productivity”.
Re:Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and... by andrepd on Wednesday July 21, 2021 @08:38PM (#27913977)
> I want people to keep being incentivized to create innovative companies, products, and services that make my life easier and more enjoyable.

Funny, I do too! That's why I don't want all the wealth and power in the hands of a few oligarchs, and that's why I want everyone to be properly compensated and rewarded for their work and their creations. Capitalism, especially in its current flavour, prevents this.

> their employees that did not take on any risk

If a business fails and closes down its employees will be out on the dole, and that's the best case scenario. They lose their health care, possibly their homes and other possessions. Capital risks what, materially? One less luxury auto? One less vacation across the globe this year? Probably not even that.

I confess I never really understood all that talk about "risk".

Re:Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and... by pb7 on Wednesday July 21, 2021 @09:30PM (#27914315)
Well then if it's so easy, then why doesn't everyone just start their own businesses? There's no risk after all. Get a loan from a bank and start a small business -- millions of people do this around the world! Easy. Guaranteed wealth, right?

>If a business fails and closes down its employees will be out on the dole, and that's the best case scenario. They lose their health care, possibly their homes and other possessions.

No, best (and most likely) scenario is that they find a job elsewhere a few weeks later while they collect unemployment. The business owner who likely had no savings because everything was reinvested into the business is actually screwed. You keep thinking every owner is Jeff Bezos but there are millions of small to medium business owners who risk it all for the chance to make it big. It's not "one less luxury auto". It's their entire livelihood.

Since you think that employees should share in the equity when a company is as successful as Amazon, I take it you also agree that employees should have all of their past wages clawed back when the company goes out of business, right? It's only fair. If they helped take the company to success, then they must have also brought it down to failure as well.

Re:Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and... by coliveira on Wednesday July 21, 2021 @10:29PM (#27914599)
> Get a loan from a bank and start a small business

That's the point: Bezos didn't get a loan from a bank, he just raised money from other rich people. He never had even the risk of repaying a bank loan, for Christ's sake! Most people who want to start small business are a much more precarious situation, and that's why they don't start businesses as easily as you want.

Re:Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and... by pb7 on Thursday July 22, 2021 @02:11PM (#27922310)
His risk was the opportunity cost of not working a safe, guaranteed high paying job which he already held.
Re:Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and... by coliveira on Wednesday July 21, 2021 @10:24PM (#27914581)
> employees that did not take on any risk

You must be kidding that Bezos took any risk... The only risk he had was that he wouldn't continue making money from his well paid Wall Street job. He was already well off when he started raising other people's money to found Amazon. So, no, he didn't take any risk to justify all this money. Only the very deluded think he did anything of great risk. He is an oligarch who exploit others, and doesn't deserve even a fraction of that fortune.

Re:Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and... by pb7 on Thursday July 22, 2021 @10:00AM (#27918944)
Yes… that is the risk. He was already comfortable and could have had a guaranteed easy life but he decided to throw that away to start Amazon that could have failed after many years of foregoing his cushy salary. Most people wouldn’t have taken this risk in his position and that’s why they will never have a chance to be wealthy like him. Your foot stomping won’t change that.
Re:Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and... by coliveira on Thursday July 22, 2021 @04:35PM (#27923962)
That's not risk at all. He wouldn't lose a cent, he was just trading one big salary for a potentially bigger fortune.
Re:Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and... by dane-pgp on Wednesday July 21, 2021 @08:34PM (#27913948)
Do you think people would no longer be incentivized if there were, for example, a cap on how much money/wealth they could own? Let's say the limit was $1 billion, to start with.

The only counter-argument I can think of is that SpaceX might have run out of money if Elon "only" had $1 billion to pour into it, but I believe he started the company with just a $100 million investment of his own money.

I'd also accept people being able to funnel billions into non-profit foundations which they control, as long as those foundations have goals which vaguely benefit society, such as "making humans a multi-planetary species".