“The mine owners did not find the gold, they did not mine the gold, they did not mill the gold, but by some weird alchemy all the gold belonged to them!” - Big Bill Haywood, 1929
They convinced investors to buy into the mining company, they bought the land, they paid the prospector, they bought the mining equipment, they paid the miners
The gold paid them back.
How else could it work?
Edit. Interesting that no one has an answer on how else it could work… For example, in Bolivia there are mining cooperatives, but they still use all the tools of capitalism to extract the gold, and the co-op members are no different to investors really. The hours worked and conditions are no different. Mining is hard and dangerous.
They bought the land? They paid the miners?? Mining has a history of forcing native people out of their lands through threats or worse killing people, making slaves out of poor people and forcing them into 12+ hours shifts in horrible and unsafe conditions.
And you’re using the products that result from that mining, so you’re just as culpable
No demand, no mining.
We should improve society somewhat.
But do we really want to pay the price for others getting it better?
I’m not saying that’s how I want it to be but unfortunately his point in the end it’s depressingly accurate…
It’s been improving for 10,000 years. We’re good.
YoU bOuGhT aN iPhOnE sO yOu CaNt CrItIcIzE cApItAlIsM
Pretty sure mining is done under all political systems.
What alternative do you suggest for making things?
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That’s not a dog…it’s a raccoon! Oh my god, look at that raccoon wearing a hat!
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This is the problem with capitalism. The workers do all the work, but the “owning” class keeps all the rewards of all that work.
I don’t agree with the size of the wealth gap between owner and regular employee, but I don’t understand why people think the heads of these companies - and I’m talking the ones that started them from nothing - did no work or continue to do no work. It’s pretty ludicrous to think that the low level employees at Amazon are doing “all the work.” Are they doing all the grunt work? Yes. Is their job the most physically demanding? Yes. Are they underpaid? Yes. But to pretend like the owner does nothing is just so idiotic and shows a lack of understanding of what goes into running a massive organization like amazon.
There definitely needs to be reform. I don’t even think taxation is the way to go, I think putting laws in place for higher wages is key.
quiet shill
Come on now, that’s not fair!
I, for one, think we should show our appreciation for Bezos being a titan of capitalist virtue by crowdfunding an experience he’ll never forget, a deep sea excursion into the depths to view the wreckage of the storied Titanic!
Who’s with me?!
Titan 2: Bezos Boogaloo
You forgot one additional picture, “we, together, allow this madness to exist”.
Money has too much power
More like: “we are too gready to prevent this disaster from re-occuring…”.
I want to have a serious conversation on this if possible. As devil’s advocate, if I want to start a business that helps people, what would I have to do to not run afoul and garner this type of criticism? Are you indicating that I must relinquish my business once it gets too big and that I am only entitled to a certain amount of success? Are you indicating that I must pay my workers far beyond what the free market dictates they are worth? Trying to understand how those are my issues. It would seem to me that these would need to change with far reaching government policies. Those policies in many ways go against capitalist principles when you start to consider having to pay a janitor for a company hundreds of thousands of dollars if the company is successful and employees are paid in revenue share. That makes far less sense than the owner of the company reaping the benefit of their innovation. I would also argue that an entrepreneur will potentially use these earnings more interestingly than a janitor, potentially to start additional businesses that help the public by increasing offerings and jobs.
I don’t really have a direct reply to these ideas but I would like to point out an interesting example of a business model that addresses some of these concerns, that is the worker cooperative, where the workers have some portion of ownership of the company, either in revenue sharing or decision making.
My take? The issue I have with the mega rich is that they (generalization here) aren’t playing by the same rules as you or I. I don’t have an issue, with not paying all of your employees 6 figures. Different jobs, skills, training, and capabilities are (and should be) worth different amounts of money. It’s important that people with good ideas, or business capabilities have avenues of expanding, bettering themselves, and enjoying the fruits of their labor.
When you pay money to write rules that are favorable to you, you become the problem. Money in politics is the problem. Imo, that has enabled all of this. Don’t have good healthcare? Likely it was lobbied for because someone wanted more money. Stuck in prison? Oh yeah, money in politics got you there. Minimum wage hasn’t kept up with inflation? Something, something trickledown-bullshit, money in politics. Kids killed in school constantly? Oh you know…FUCKING MONEY IN POLITICS.
Favorable can be lobbying against health & safety or environmental regulations because it impacts your bottom line. It is donating to political campaigns for tax cuts (you know, fucking bribery). It’s blocking minimum wage hikes to secure your bottom line.
All of that said, how people sleep at night with absurd amounts of money and minimal charity is disgusting. I don’t fault someone for enjoying an oppulant lifestyle…I do fault someone for Scrooge McDucking and hoarding cash…for what? Bragging rights? Power?
TLDR: be gaddamn ethical about it.
This is a fair take.
If you’re paying your employees what they’re worth (not the minimum the market will bear, but actually in line with the value they contribute), and you’re still making Bezos money, then you’re fleecing your customers.
There’s no way to get to a billion dollars without 1) exploiting your labor and supply chain by taking advantage of capitalist forces to pay less than the value of their contribution or 2) exploiting your customers by taking advantage of capitalist forces to charge more than the value of your product. Usually both, to extreme degrees, enabled by monopolies, regulatory capture, collusion, and other capitalist tricks. That’s not “a business that helps people”.
No matter how “innovative” an entrepreneur is, the actual value of their product or service is generated by the people who actually do the work. Of course, you’re entitled to the value that you personally create, but the best business idea in the world is worth exactly zilch without implementation. Bezos doesn’t build those fulfillment centers, he doesn’t manufacture the products, he doesn’t pack the boxes, he doesn’t drive the trucks, he doesn’t program the website. He only has the wealth he does because he pays the people that generate the value of his company the absolute minimum that he can get away with, skimming a big slice of everyone’s labor value for himself. That doesn’t help the public.
You don’t give him enough credit. He worked extremely hard to make Amazon what it is today. Additionally, he took major risks to his credit where he convinced investors to fund a new form of supply chain. He is reaping the reward of taking entrepreneurial risks and creating something innovative. I don’t know how you can say that Amazon doesn’t help people. Their prices are in-line with the market and no one can touch their shipping costs. Their warehouse jobs are demanding, but they explain that to anyone getting into it. In time, the people will mostly be replaced by robots anyways. The employees want more money, but robots work for free. If anything, we should be very interested in potentially implementing UBI and a VAT on automation per Andrew Yang.
He did not work multiple billions of dollars hard. No one can possibly work multiple billions of dollars hard. Bezos is worth 157 billion, and he’s 59 years old, which averages to over $10 million per day since he was 18. Are you seriously suggesting that he has done 100 times more work, every single day of his life, than someone making $100,000 does in a whole year? Sure, he had some good ideas, and deserves to be fairly compensated, but that’s monstrously out of proportion.
Capitalism does not, and has never, fundamentally rewarded hard work. Capitalism, fundamentally, rewards having a bunch of money to buy the rights to the value of the hard work of others. The most reliable way to get rich in capitalism isn’t even to have great business ideas, it’s to be born with rich parents so you can buy lots of shares in a company, and then use your shares to demand the company prioritize maximum dividends and minimum employee compensation. The investors that actually contribute meaningful ideas are a coincidential minority at best.
Sure, UBI and VAT are valuable ideas, but the main problem is that the robots will be owned by rich investors who made their money by being born rich enough to throw money at ventures that made them richer.
The actual solution is vesting the employees who actually create value with shares of the means of production they use to create that value. When the workers are the shareholders, they are actually compensated for their hard work, and the problem solves itself.
I don’t think there is a simple answer to this question. Not bribing politicians for favours, not exploiting workers and not selling substandard goods might be considered a basic minimum. Beyond this, there have been businessmen who tried to help their employees (or society as a whole), such as Ernst Abbe of Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung and John Spedan Lewis of JLP / Waitrose.
WTF did I just read?
This is an easy question to answer. Look at Henry Ford and look at Bezos and his type (oh for example Walmart, etc). Ford wanted his workers to be able to afford the product he was making, and he even lost a landmark case because he was looking out for the best interest of his employees and his customers, from wikipedia:
Dodge v. Ford Motor Company, 204 Mich. 459, 170 N.W. 668 (Mich. 1919)[1] is a case in which the Michigan Supreme Court held that Henry Ford had to operate the Ford Motor Company in the interests of its shareholders, rather than in a manner for the benefit of his employees or customers. It is often taught as affirming the principle of “shareholder primacy” in corporate America, although that teaching has received some criticism
You can look at civilization throughout history and see that the ones that lasted the longest cared about the individual rights of every citizen. When you allow a certain class to violate individual rights you end in revolution.
If they can even get there. At this point there’s so much money poured into vitriol and smear campaigns, divisive propaganda to keep everyone off the same page, hell, even people getting murdered or imprisoned just for trying to do what they can to get their voice out on a public platform and improve their countries… I hope the revolution actually happens, but it seems like it’ll take some grand feat of coordination…
The amount of corporate bootlicking in this thread/meme is simply astounding.
UPS pays good though.
Depends on the position! Last contract adjustment really helps the part-timers rise above poverty wages. Has yet to be ratified but it looks promising.
Doesn’t pay $142,667/ Minute
It’s good until you pay off the union that doesn’t provide until you’ve been a member for a number of years
Things may have changed, but I noped out of the package handlers Union back in the 00’s when I was offered a shitty job at UPS because it looked like the pay was going to be shit until I’d suffered for years, then it’s be slightly less shit.
/please correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t want to spread misinformation, just want to share how shit the union system can be unchecked.
And it’s never enough
I bed the creator of the meme is using Amazon frequently and doesn’t give a dime about the people there.
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Maybe meme creators are just hypocrites and grave for likes?
Listen, I can order a plethora of items, from the comfort of my recliner, and get them within two days for a yearly subscription fee of $140. A subscription that also includes Prime video streaming, a service that typically costs about that annually from an alternative provider.
I know it’s fun and easy to shit on multi billion dollar companies but Amazon is Amazon because people voted with their wallets to make them that way.
Bezos deserves to reap what he sowed. If you think you can do it better, more equitably, you’re welcome to try.
You have to blame how he made the money not how much he pays himself. Almost all of his wealth comes from the stock market and how inflated his amazon shares have become. He isnt taking money away from his laborers this is just not true
He underpays his employees to make higher profits to increase his company’s value…
