5 minutes ago, psolk said:

OK then sincere apologies if you did not initiate the Amazon conversation...  I do not want you any hotter than you already are, most of the Air Conditioning in the UK (if there is any) is a joke as it is 🙂  Apologies if I misspoke 

 

 

Very well. Just this once I will accept your apologies and sabotage of my Socratic debating method I was experimenting with. 

And no, we don't have air con, accept in shops and businesses. We at home have to just swim through gallons of sweat. But to be fair, the heat we used to occasionally get for a week or two in the summer wasn't  worthy of fitting air con, didn't happen enough. Now it is happening more frequently though. I would mention climate change but then someone will dive in and say its not happening. 

Does anyone think Bezos' 200 billion $$$ or so just is just a huge pile of cash sitting in an Amazon warehouse somewhere?  

Nada.  It's invested:  Perhaps In stocks and bonds, U.S. government notes and certificates, as well as in his other projects that give jobs to many people.  And as mentioned, the Amazon Corp. employs a million plus, not including all the other retailers who sell their products thru Amazon.     

Americans have always shown an animosity towards the rich, esp. nowadays - "they don't pay their fare share of taxes"!  Yeah, but all their employees probably do... How many $$$ does that come to? 

I'm not a Bezos fan, but hey, just remember - he started the big A from scratch.  Anyone else had the same chance to do that.

BTW, I'm just a retired guy living on a modest but comfortable income...    

I once worked for the river. The whole peeing in bottles is BS. Never had to or was ever made to pee in a bottle. It's not in any way shape or form company policy to not allow employees to use the restrooms. Now are these places houses of joy with everyone running around singing zippity doh-dah, of course not. It's warehouse work. But as far as warehouse working goes they are far from being the worst in pay and working conditions. Lets be real, every company has a certain percentage of it's workers who are never happy and endlessly find fault with just about every little thing they can. Even it's just 5% of the company, in a company as large as Amazon that's 50,000+ people. In this day and age of social media they can go online and raise a fuss and then everyone just assumes its representative of the entire firm when that's far from being the truth.

I think its great what these guys are doing. Wouldn't be surprised if in about 20 years it will be cheaper and safer to take a quick hop up to space then it will be to climb Mt. Everest. That's incredible. For time eternal people have dreamed of traveling to the heavens, we are lucky enough to be living in a age where it's coming to fruition and coming within reach of the common man. It's awesome.

2 hours ago, overspeed3 said:

"they don't pay their fare share of taxes"!  Yeah, but all their employees probably do...

a certain millionaire politician once bragged that he never paid less than 13%.

I, a guy with multiple health issues, who usually earned around $10,000 a year, paid an 18% tax rate.  I was the one who kept getting fired for things like having seizures because you know "Right To Work" and all that.  meanwhile the politicians cut funding for housing and food and any other assistance that goes to people that need help -- but only funding going to low income folks.  Its tax breaks and slush fund money to a variety of businesses because 'jobs'.  and then they fight against minimum wages so people can survive.

When the working poor require public assistance due to a company not paying them enough, it is the taxpayer subsidizing that companies bottom line.

#0

I think Billionaire Astronaut Reentry Fee (BARF), is a brilliant idea!

Well! That didn't take long...

The first response sort of acknowledged the intended humor, but followed up by 2+ pages of "other stuff not related to the intended subject."

It has been an interesting discussion thus far none the less.

• Amazon does employ a lot of people, although the vast majority are employed as "Reduced Time" workers (30-39 hours per week) so that they are not entitled to the level of benefits given to "Full Time" employees. See: Paid Time Off for U.S. Amazon Employees* | Amazon.jobs
• Urinating in bottles has not been "debunked". In actual face Amazon apologized for misspeaking. See: Amazon aware that workers allegedly pee in water bottles, documents show; company pushes back | Fox Business also: Amazon apologizes for denying that its drivers pee in bottles - CBS News

Well, it seems necessary now for someone to point out that fighter pilots and astronauts pee in bottles, too.

26 minutes ago, w6kd said:

Well, it seems necessary now for someone to point out that fighter pilots and astronauts pee in bottles, too.

As a kid, traveling in the car, I use to use coffee cans!   Not in the car, mind you, but we would pull over to the side of the road, open the door and put the can on the ground.  I got to practice my aim! 

1 hour ago, n4gix said:

 

The first response sort of acknowledged the intended humor, but followed up by 2+ pages of "other stuff not related to the intended subject."

 

The two pages were very much related to your post, Bill. Amazon and in general Big Tech have been a sensitive and hot political issue in several countries of Western Europe these recent months (and in the US...). What you consider as humor belongs to the manipulative toolkit of the far left and Greens.  So as old Vic once said " we were not amused" 🤣 !

55 minutes ago, w6kd said:

Well, it seems necessary now for someone to point out that fighter pilots and astronauts pee in bottles, too.

 

Astronauts use nappies. 👍

They arent in a warehouse that is supposed to have toilet facilities though. 

29 minutes ago, charliearon said:

As a kid, traveling in the car, I use to use coffee cans!   Not in the car, mind you, but we would pull over to the side of the road, open the door and put the can on the ground.  I got to practice my aim! 

 

I recall driving to RIAT, the Royal International Air Tatoo, and my ex wife hadn't gone before she left home. And yes, when we got to the Cotswolds the queue's were horrendous. Poor girl was in agony.

When we got to the RAF Fairford base she had to queue for the chemical toilet cubicle thing. 😩 The F35B wasn't around back then, but it would have rivaled the Harriers VTOL.

"10% of the billionaut’s net worth as estimated by Forbes’ “Real-Time Billionaire List” at the time of their launch. "

This sentence alone demonstrates people have no clue on how things like net worth or finances actually work. If you live in a house valued at $500 000 and a few possessions worth $5000, $1000 in the bank and $10000 in debts, your net worth is $496 000. 10% of that is $49 600. Can you pull that out at a moments notice?

This is by no means a defense of the wealthy, but in an era where its all about categorizing people and outrage, I like to understand the facts and nuances of certain things. Wealthy people do not have stacks of cash lying around, given continual inflation of fiat currency that is a terrible way to store wealth. People build wealth by creating companies that produce goods and services, buying property and using the money they earn to buy shares (pieces of ownership) of another company that naturally gain value over time.

When you understand these ideas, their status is calculated not some miracle that is impossible to all but a select few, Which means that you can apply the same ideas and principles to improve your own life bit by bit. You may not be a billionaire in 20 years, but you'll be way better off than you are not making an attempt. Just a thought.

 

Edited July 21, 20214 yr by FrankSalo

1 hour ago, FrankSalo said:

This sentence alone demonstrates people have no clue on how things like net worth or finances actually work. If you live in a house valued at $500 000 and a few possessions worth $5000, $1000 in the bank and $10000 in debts, your net worth is $496 000. 10% of that is $49 600. Can you pull that out at a moments notice?

Of course you can - you have a line of credit against the asset which you can tap at will, and you don't need to be a billionaire to do so. The interest costs, especially today, are so low that they are much better than the transaction costs or tax liability from selling an appreciated asset.

If I was a multi-millionaire whose wealth was primarily in stock that appreciated much faster than interest rates, I'd do as much as possible of my spending via borrowing against those assets. I'd have no tax liability on that since I'm not liquidating an asset and incurring capital gains and the interest itself is tax-deductible. Assuming I keep the amount borrowed until I die, the underlying collateral gets a stepped-up basis at my death and everyone wins.... except the Treasury.

The rich truly are not like you and me, but increasingly their tools are available to us.

Cheers!

I'll tell you what does irritate me, how certain politicians, one with the initials BS, complains that Bezos spends his billions taking "joyrides" into space while many Americans are in poverty.

He ignores the fact (or is word not allowed of the facts) that the ultimate objective of Blue Origin is to take heavy industry off this planet and make it a cleaner, greener place. So no, it's not just a "joyride" it's a step towad developing the tech that will enable us to do that.

Same politician has criticised Musk and labeled endeavours in space a waste of money and claimed Elon should spend his money fighting climate change. How ironic given that Tesla have taken thousands of gas cars off the road, make power walls and grid scale batteries, solar panels and solar tiles. And SpaceX are trying to make us a multiplanetary species to ensure our long term survival.

Edited July 22, 20214 yr by martin-w

3 hours ago, martin-w said:

I'll tell you what does irritate me, how certain politicians, one with the initials BS, complains that Bezos spends his billions taking "joyrides" into space while many Americans are in poverty.

He ignores the fact (or is word not allowed of the facts) that the ultimate objective of Blue Origin is to take heavy industry off this planet and make it a cleaner, greener place. So no, it's not just a "joyride" it's a step towad developing the tech that will enable us to do that.

Same politician has criticised Musk and labeled endeavours in space a waste of money and claimed Elon should spend his money fighting climate change. How ironic given that Tesla have taken thousands of gas cars off the road, make power walls and grid scale batteries, solar panels and solar tiles. And SpaceX are trying to make us a multiplanetary species to ensure our long term survival.

That may be, but I'm still annoyed (actually downright angry!) at the almost childish competition of "Being the FIRST billionaire in space" and commercializing themselves by that, while claiming their efforts is such a breakthrough for humanity etc etc... and throwing a huge number of money in that direction, as well... *SIGH* ... all the while, people are drowning in Germany/Austria/Belgium, forest fires are spreading in California etc, heat waves are multiplying and the planet is battling a pandemic. Personally, I just think it's a waste of resources and it makes me angry, when Bezos then says, that 'he didn't know what else to do with his wealth' ... I don't know - maybe I'm missing something or maybe I'm just being naive or 'too leftist' to see things for what they "truly" are ... but I personally think, that their whole endeavor of battling for their personal space race, is childish, wasteful and only displays the egocentric way that some of these people apparently are thinking. The gap between rich and poor has really increased over the last decades and this just goes to show, that while people are suffering and drowning, loosing their homes and are getting sick from a pandemic, these people - on top of society are only focusing on 'being the first to space' ... 

I don't know anymore... maybe I'm being to short sighted or maybe I'm just too blind. In any case, I won't add to your 'irritation against people who "complain" ' - so I'll just withdraw from this debate/thread.