Bezos, who retook the title of the world’s richest individual from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates late last year, has said that he is so rich that he can only imagine spending his wealth by plowing it into space travel.
Quite a failing of imagination there, Mr Bezos, I can think of a great many other good things that can be done with your vast wealth: such as, oh, I don’t know, let’s say giving your employees a pay rise, for a start. And perhaps using your vast wealth to help humanity deal with the various crises facing it.
Or would you rather we all got out a guillotine, instead?
A report by Public Citizen found that “Amazon is engaged in price gouging on products it sells directly” through its Amazon Essentials line, with products like facemasks and corn starch seeing elevenfold increases in price.
by Alan Macleod
A new report from advocacy group Public Citizen details how retail giant Amazon “misled the public, law enforcement, and policymakers about price increases during the pandemic,” raising their prices on essential products “to levels that would be considered violations of price gouging laws in many states.” The prices of many products in high demand during the pandemic jumped by over 1,000 percent when compared to this time last year.
As accusations of price gouging began, Amazon blamed “bad actors,” declaring in an official statement that, “there is no place for price gouging on Amazon,” committing itself to “working vigorously” to ensure fair pricing, and “collaborating with federal, state, and local law enforcement…
Phlyarologist (part-time) and pendant. Campaigner for action against anthropogenic global warming (AGW) and injustice in all its forms. Humanist, atheist, notoftenpist. Wannabe poet, writer and astronaut.
Yup, that is consistent with our experience, too. We bought toilet paper pre-pandemic, we found some that was 100% recycled paper (not as easy as you might think) and noticed that the price had risen significantly during lockdown. This was from a third-party vendor, so we don’t have any idea who is making the extra profit.
I don’t like judging a book by its cover, but just take look at his smug mug!
He is supposedly donating a bunch to other things (like cancer research). And, in the end, it IS his money to spend. He doesn’t just throw away his money into space. He sees it as an investment and that will either make him even richer or keep him at the current levels of rich (which is still rich).
I was never a fan of Amazon and I prefer brick-and-mortar as much as I can. During the pandemic, when I was quarantining, I ordered something that would take WEEKS to arrive at my door, UNLESS I paid extra for expedited shipping. It was supposed to take a week. I received my package 2 days later. Then, I ordered something and did NOT pay the extra fee. It took longer than quoted. Conclusion – money, money, money. No surprise. So I will keep using amazon as little as I can.
While that is of course true, my contention is that he (and many obscenely rich folk like him) makes his fortune literally at everyone else’s expense. Such folk passively use the infrastructure of society without, in many cases, contributing significantly to it; and they actively abuse society by unfairly influencing political systems to further their own aims (and, incidentally, instituting rules that reduce their own tax burdens). In effect, they’re stealing money from the rest of us — so I would argue that no, it’s not all ‘his money’.
Yup, that is consistent with our experience, too. We bought toilet paper pre-pandemic, we found some that was 100% recycled paper (not as easy as you might think) and noticed that the price had risen significantly during lockdown. This was from a third-party vendor, so we don’t have any idea who is making the extra profit.
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I don’t like judging a book by its cover, but just take look at his smug mug!
He is supposedly donating a bunch to other things (like cancer research). And, in the end, it IS his money to spend. He doesn’t just throw away his money into space. He sees it as an investment and that will either make him even richer or keep him at the current levels of rich (which is still rich).
I was never a fan of Amazon and I prefer brick-and-mortar as much as I can. During the pandemic, when I was quarantining, I ordered something that would take WEEKS to arrive at my door, UNLESS I paid extra for expedited shipping. It was supposed to take a week. I received my package 2 days later. Then, I ordered something and did NOT pay the extra fee. It took longer than quoted. Conclusion – money, money, money. No surprise. So I will keep using amazon as little as I can.
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Hi Sam, thanks for dropping by.
While that is of course true, my contention is that he (and many obscenely rich folk like him) makes his fortune literally at everyone else’s expense. Such folk passively use the infrastructure of society without, in many cases, contributing significantly to it; and they actively abuse society by unfairly influencing political systems to further their own aims (and, incidentally, instituting rules that reduce their own tax burdens). In effect, they’re stealing money from the rest of us — so I would argue that no, it’s not all ‘his money’.
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I don’t disagree with your logic.
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Keep the guillotine on standby! :-)
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Thanks for reblogging
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