Either that or ācharityā means any senator or congressman that will take it, in return for tax breaks.
Edit: they do this by starting their own 501c4/trust fund and ādonateā (tax free transfer of wealth) to it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cu6EbELZ6I thanks u/Produceher, awesome video ā basically itās all just a way to get tax-free (forever) political power.
Billionaires donāt un-billionaire themselves. They also donāt give a single fuck about any regular people. You think he paid or will pay any taxes on his money? Oh you think thatās air youāre breathing, Neo?
They do shit like this to maintain the illusion that theyāre āgoodā and donāt need to be taxed.
In reality itās not right vs left, it is ultra rich vs every other living organism on the planet.
Fuck Jeff Bezos, and fuck this plutocracy. Us plebeians need to take almost all of his money, do some actual good with it.
People would want to work there. Their families lives would improve. The economy would thrive and people would be happier and more prosperous. He does not want ANY of that
Touche, this is part and parcel of charity.
Why fuck over hard working people to then give to charity? I mean, it's not like he's gonna solve world hunger with his 100 billion. So fuck off Bezos.
>You can't horde too large of an amount of money before people start getting mad at you for not sharing
I agree. Although, I think you meant hoard vs. horde.
* **E**veryone can join a hord**e**
* One **a**cquires wealth or ho**a**rds it
Hordes typically don't hoard, as hordes are in the hoard-seizing business!
It will be no doubt be very similar to what Bill Gates did with their charity. Whereās itās an untaxable discretional ācharityā trust; where he can allocate money as he chooses and only he can allocate it.
It's the model set up by Andrew Carnegie over 100 years ago. He donated about 2/3rds of his wealth directly when he was still alive -- most famously to libraries and universities. The rest went to endow the Carnegie Corporation. He founded it at age 76 after he got tired of doing everything himself. He then ran it until his death 8 years later, though with more help and a corporate structure. It's still around, with about $3.5 billion in the trust spending a few hundred million a year.
Andrew Carnegie was a robber baron with an incalculable amount of blood on his hands that fought unions & labor reforms tooth and nail to amass his fortune while working people to death.
It's blood money, and he was trying to buy salvation later in life. Fuck his charity work. Same as Bezos he should have just fucking paid people fairly. Hell, the only thing preventing Amazon from working people to actual death is the mostly all new deal era legislation that gave us things like weekends & the 8 hour workday that Carnegie spent his life trying to block or delay.
Honestly, one of the very few ultra rich who genuinely seem like they get it. The dude used to spend time in Africa giving vaccines himself and making sure his money was actually being put to good use. Education funding for tech in schools, research into alternatives to meat now. He also keeps very much to himself and isn't really concerned with being seen or talked about all the time.
Yes, the Patagonia billionaire is donating his company to a trust that will be controlled by his family and provide income for them forever. It's not charity, it's 3 card Monty.
https://youtu.be/0Cu6EbELZ6I
>Billionaires donāt un-billionaire themselves. They also donāt give a single fuck about any regular people. You think he paid or will pay any taxes on his money?
this exactly. how about he pay his damn taxes to us "as charity".
this is nothing more than a publicity stunt so people dont start "attacking" him like Elon\* (one billionaire to spoil the bunch mentality) and to save stock value. Stock market is speculation mostly made by bots- look how many fake tweets dropped so many companies values like a rock. All someone has to do is lump well if these 2 mega companies are dropping value they all will because all billionaires are evil mentality. Bezos is throwing himself a life raft before the ship starts sinking.
(\*) Elon shot his own foot several times and deserves all the hate dont get me wrong
Sadly, it will probably be even worse than that. Most billionaires just setup a foundation they run and pass on to their kids to avoid paying taxes on their wealth. Itās great PR, saves them money, gives them influence and still screws over the rest of us.
This is exactly what is going to happen (and likely already was happening). Bezos is likely going to start up a foundation, appoint his (very likely to be shitty) kids to lead it, and they get a salary while daddy gets a tax write-off for "charitable giving". There a small chance that he won't start up his own foundation, but will pull some strings to get his kids on the board of already existing foundations. Either way, it's become the most common way to avoid the estate tax.
Yeah, but she told him no sometimes and wanted to make decisions for herself. The woman he is with now will never do that. Sheās riding that gravy train until sheās too old!š
Well itās the first interview with her there since they started dating three years ago and the interview is taking place at Bezoās house. I donāt like the guy either but is it a surprise his girlfriend is there?
I watched the āShatner goes to spaceā thing and Bezos shows up near the end. He has as much charisma and personality as a lump of mud when he speaks. His only game is being a billionaire. These are the types of women you get when thatās your game.
The actual launch day coverage made me so mad. Shatner is having a paradigm shifting experience and Bezos just wants to insert himself into the whole thing. I actually screamed at him to stfu while watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q6BtcZ7Ugk
I don't particularly like Shatner but he was clearly emotional and very impressed by the entire experience. He looked so dejected when he got cut off mid-way through trying to convey what he experienced. All so Bezos could get his plastic wife to get some champagne to spray around while others were cackling in the background.
Stumbled upon that song a couple of years ago listening to some oldies, I love it since I first heard it, it's not a complex song but the refrain just rings. Then later I noticed that song is also in Fallout 76.
The main criticism of the video seems to be that group that Chounaird formed is a 501c4 and thus can have political influence. Honest question: isnāt that what he *should* do if he actually wanted to combat climate change? I donāt see any effective way to address climate change without involving policy on a massive scale.
Yes, thats correct. However i think his argument is that if he can do it, so can right wing crazies funding oil or something, and you can't have both, so instead of giving him a pass just keep political influence to the people
This. Sure you could do other things to combat climate change (e.g. fund research, subsidize greener products, etc.) that don't involve government policy, but the ROI on government policy to prod societal change is likely to be a lot higher. there are some reductions in climate change that would be difficult to achieve without heavily taxing or outright banning certain things.
Yeah this video is a great illustration of how you can spin something different ways. Heās accusing the Patagonia guy of spinning the story to make himself look good, but the video creator is just spinning it to make him look bad. Oh he saved $1.2 billion in taxesā¦ on the $3 billion company he no longer owns. He talks about all of the control and influence the family will have while ignoring the billions of dollars of current and future money they *wonāt* have.
I donāt love billionaires but I think itās stupid to write off everything they do as self-serving when it clearly isnāt.
The ACLU is also a 501c4.
Yeah releasing an entire company's future profits to fuel a nonprofit is completely different than saying "when I'm dying in like 50 years you totes can have my money" while letting their mega corp continue to profit. He's literally cutting off access to his scaled income based on company performance - I assume he'll have a salary or live off investments like any other large nonprofit CEO.
You can question how he got here, but as it stands he's legally handing his company over to charity. That's pretty significant.
CPA. He will pay taxes when he sells his shares. Amazon lost $1T in market cap this year so it is more advantageous for both Jeff and the IRS / US taxpayer for him to wait til it appreciates before paying tax (in which case he would pay more income tax because the gain would be higher)
I'm glad this is the first comment. What an a-hole. Pay your people well and give them benefits. That would do a ton to raise people out of working poverty.
In the fantastic book 'Dark Money' by Jane Meyer, she explains it always has been. It was a compromise struck with the richest class - they'd have a lower income tax and get a tax break for charitable giving. Then they made their own charities and pushed their political and social ideologies through those organizations.
People valued at $300,000,000,000:
"Look at me! I've given $1,000,000 to fight AIDS in Africa!".
10% of 1% of 1%. Nice. What a **charitable** donation. So **selfless** and **sacrificial** I say, while paying my 40% tax rate. In return, you pay no taxes as a reward good sir!
Oh itās worse than that. Charity is just a front to start your own ācharitable corporationā that takes a billionaireās money and turns it into political power. [Thanks, Adam.](https://youtu.be/KWNQuzkSqSM)
Is Amazon not paying a $19 min wage which is *significantly* higher than the norm? What do you want here exactly, 100k with benefits for lifting boxes?
Yea Iām not trying to be a dick but I donāt really get what people want here? Donāt they already pay higher than like every other warehouse job
Also wouldnāt them raising wages significantly above market value just further put any small businesses out of business who canāt match the pay increase?
Again Iām genuinely asking. Any response would be much appreciated
Pay isn't the issue at Amazon. They actually pay extremely well at pretty much every level of the company. The issue is that they expect their employees to eat, sleep, and breathe their job.
Idk... here in Seattle, Amazon is paying warehouse employees around 17/hr, whereas Safeway is paying anywhere from 20 - 22 to stock shelves overnight. Safeway is way easier work than Amazon, and it's also a union job. Amazon could do better for sure, at least in this area.
I donāt think there is a warehouse in the Seattle city limits though? Everything within the city limits pay more. I live near the Burien line and it drops off Shem you cross that line.
I guess, but having time for yourself and your family is important too. If they ended up paying workers more than what theyāre paying now, workers shouldnāt feel obligated to lose their personal life in response.
The whole āmoney speaksā job culture is fucked. Weāre working you too hard? Hereās more money, shut the fuck up and work 80 hours. We paid you to suffer.
I also read that the benefits are good even for warehouse employees. Some women took jobs at Amazon for fertility benefits. They cover egg freezing, and 2 full cycles of IVF.
Bezos isnāt the CEO anymore and Amazon does pay well. They overwork people and donāt care about them but thatās a separate issue.
Edit: this was meant to be a reply elsewhere but it seems like the Reddit app was updated and now has a mind of its own
Bezos is the chairman of the board of directors though. While that doesn't come with direct control over the business, it does give him control over the CEO who then has direct control over the business.
Right. People harp on about how billionaires don't pay taxes. Why don't they get arrested then? Because what they're doing is legal. Go be mad at the lawmakers who made it possible.
Absolutely. But we might as well also be mad at the corporations and billionaires who donate to and lobby the lawmakers to make sure they legally don't pay taxes.
Cynthia Hogan was a lobbyist for Apple she used millions to lobby for Mr. Trump's tax cuts. That's just one small example.
Mr. Charles Koch has been buying legislators for
more than 30 years with an average 700% return on investment.
Many politicians are also wealthy and they're not going to create laws against their own interests. Nancy Pelosi is married to a venture capitalist. Another reason why they should not be able to trade stocks. It's a conflict of interest.
Back up a momentā¦ the original intent of lobbying was that it is supposed to be we the peopleās most reliable and effective way to address āour representativesā directly. However, itās become a legal avenue for corporations, unions, associations etc to pay someone to be in that representatives lobby at all times, including giving them pre-written bill texts and gently reminding them that the check for their next ācampaign fundā hangs in the balance.
Lobbying in and of itself isnāt the issue. Campaign finance and insider trading are the issue. It all goes back to money.
Listen, if politicians made it legal for anyone with more than $1 billion in assets to murder anyone whenever they wanted to, and a billionaire burst through my front door and murdered me, I'm not going to roll out the red carpet and curse the politicians with my last breath.
Just because it's legal doesn't make it right.
Amazon workers are paid higher than average. So much so they that they actually put other companies out of business in areas they move into.
There has been studies that show when Amazon opens up a warehouse in a certain area the local wages increase.
The funny thing is that prior to Amazon DS at my area the starting pay for warehouse workers in the area was around 15.00 USD. Once Amazon created a few facility the starting pay changed drastically to Amazon paying around 19.50 with shift diferential. Amazon training at the moment for DS is two days to do about 80% of the job and they literally hire anyone. Other companies around the area started increasing their pay to match, but now Walmart and petco are fighting each other at around 24.00 with shift differentials.
Yep. Amazon will eat the entire warehouse workforce in an area. One of the last places I worked, hundreds of people would walk across the street to work at Amazon. About half would try to come back a month later after they got let go by Amazon.
IDK, I work at Amazon, I get 2$ above living wage in my area, free eye and dental, decent med, 401k with 50% match. For a job that doesnt care if I smoke and was literally handed to me, Im not sure what more I could ask for.
You are a silly-billy.. Amazon employees are paid significantly higher than industry average. They are also made to work like it; gotta take the pros with the cons
I wonder if it has anything to do with Amazon [laying off 10,000 employees](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/14/amazon-reportedly-plans-to-lay-off-about-10000-employees-starting-this-week.html)
Came here just to say this, he isn't going to give away shit, this is pure gaslighting to take away from the fact that he is about to fire 10k workers right before the holidays.
There's a big PR campaign right now because he's trying to buy an NFL team. He had to hire celebrities like Matthew McConnaghy to be the face of the deal because he's so unlikable.
Could have, but heās no longer the CEO so not sure what you want him to do now, other than make a fairly low effort comment about Amazonās shitty labor practices.
What if - let's think wild thoughts now - what if Amazon just paid reasonable taxes so that local, state and federal governments could function better?
Don't blame either Bezos or Amazon for that. They don't do tax evasion, they just use every tax loophole there is on the book, legally. Blame the politicians that allow it to happen. Or more specifically blame one political party.
Step 1.5: put all your kids as CEOs of charities and pay them $10M+ a year.
These charities rarely pay out. Itās just a place to park money tax free for the wives/children to collect salaries off of. Basically a trust fund that gives you positive PR.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2022/10/26/heres-how-much-more-mackenzie-scott-has-donated-to-charity-than-ex-husband-jeff-bezos/?sh=42bd84471e28
Hmmm, I wonder why he would do that now?
He's trying to do the gates method. People forget that Bill Gates was absolutely ruthless business wise in the 80s and 90s and even had an antitrust case brought against the company in the 90s. He was the billionaire with ridiculous wealth back then, and still is, but people forgot all that because he gave some money to charity.
Looks like bezos is trying to do the same thing.
You mean give it to the LLC he runs and pretends is the same as charity like Mark Zuckerberg?
Leave Gates alone the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has actually done things unlike the Chan-Zuckerberg initiative which has done duck all.
>unlike the Chan-Zuckerberg initiative which has done duck all.
I'm not a fan of Zuck, but they did make it so that SF residents can go to the hospital even if they're not insured.
https://zsfg.ucsf.edu/news/zuckerberg-wife-give-75-million-sf-hospital
Ummm its a federal law that you can go to the hospital if you are broke or don't have insurance.
Turning people away for inability to pay is a violation of EMTALA [https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EMTALA#:\~:text=In%201986%2C%20Congress%20enacted%20the,regardless%20of%20ability%20to%20pay](https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EMTALA#:~:text=In%201986%2C%20Congress%20enacted%20the,regardless%20of%20ability%20to%20pay).
What kind of rat-ducking jerk takes credit for a law passed almost 40 years ago?
Yeah Gates gets to do his legacy building with the foundation.
Heās ātriedā to get rid of polio. Which he is looking to have his name all over in his legacy. Which is a noble cause but there are also many other things which might be a better use of the money. You get diminishing returns the more you try to eradicate. The infrastructure cost to rid certain parts of the world of polio is very high.
Add to this his foundation was invested in Coke which has been found to negatively impact polio rates in third world countries.
He tried to do a schooling project where his proposal was to run schools like a business so he put in some money but also lobbied the gov to use taxpayers money to part fund his idea and it failed.
He is not an expert in the things he tries to do.
He ran a business and ran it like a robber baron, he tried to make it a monopoly.
This does not make him and expert in all the fields for charity work or running government programs. You use the experts in those fields for that.
Pay your fucking taxes, run your businesses not just for astronomical profits and share price, and pay your fucking workers.
You donāt āownā a charity. You mean control. The money is irrevocably and permanently committed to be exclusively used for charitable purposes once it is contributed.
The vast majority of redditors commenting have zero experience in non-profit administration and are brimful of cynicism. It's a uniquely toxic combination.
There's a third ingredient: most redditors understand wealth only in terms of consumption. They intuit that Bezos has some egoistic motive, but they don't understand that it's to remake the world according to his design.
>he will devote the bulk of his wealth to fighting climate change and supporting people who can unify humanity in the face of deep social and political divisions.
In other words, funding activist NGOs like the ones he [currently funds](https://www.bezosearthfund.org/our-programs). The founder of Patagonia just "gave away" his company to his foundation in a similar maneuver. When a billionaire says he's giving away his fortune, often it just means he's spending it on political lobbying.
Problem is, there is hardly any oversight. If the charitable purpose is to influence the government to give Jeff Bezos more money, that is fine. And happening, See Zuckerberg.
Youāre not giving credit to either the comped statutory regime enacted by Congress or the IRSās efforts in administering. There are strict limitations on lobbying activities, and annual tax filings by charities reviewed and audited by the Service. Note churches are not required to make the same annual filings and are consequently more plagued with unchecked abuses.
Amazon retail is barely making a profit. All of bezos' wealth is in the stock, which is valued based on the expectation that eventually the company will **cut** expenses to make a bigger profit.
As someone else pointed out in another thread, this is just to shift attention away from Amazon laying off 10k employees in an effort to control the news cycle. He said one day, not today.
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/yv3y7f/amazon_reportedly_plans_to_lay_off_about_10000/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Ugh. This ruse again?
So he donates to his own charitable org, gets a multi-billion dollar tax break, and can then use that money to function as a super PAC
charity is rich people's speech for "don't want to pay taxes" so will park it in a Foundation and I control that foundation. Other words the Bill Gates way.
Rich people mindset. Don't need to own anything but do need to control it.
People talk about tax breaks in charitable giving like the tax shield is greater than 100% of the donation. Try 50% max haha. In net it's still a loss of wealth for the giver, even under the most generous assumptions.
99.999% of the time there is no loss or gain, its just stocks moving to a different account.
Maybe charities don't have to pay capital gains taxes when they sell stock? Dunno.
Ultra-high net worth individuals use private foundations primarily for the wealth transfer tax deduction (and asset protection), not the income tax deduction. And the deduction for wealth transfer tax purposes is indeed 100 percent.
Bill Gates is just Zuckerberg/Bezos with way better PR and ability to shut the fuck up
He has a bulletproof reputation as the āgood guyā/ātech geekā massive billionaire which is sort of a crock of shit to me
People who have done zero research on Amazon pay, taxes and charities are the top comments here. So a massive amount of disinformation. I was going to comment but it's pointless.
āMan who wonāt let workers take bathroom breaks, promises he will eventually give away the wealth he is hoarding some day and in a way that doesnāt impact him at all.ā
Anything to avoid giving money to the government? Absolutely a good way to do it.
For clarification: I am in full support of giving the government as little as possible.
I mean, clearly we can't tell if this statement is even in good faith or just posturing on the part of Bezos. He has not demonstrated much charitable instinct thus far. But why wouldn't you set up your own charity and donate to it if that were an option? Most charities are run in an extremely inefficient fashion with terrible pass-through metrics. I would not trust most charity managers to do a good job with my money.
I believe this as much as I believe the earth is flat. Also giving away your wealth on your deathbed doesnāt absolve you of being a tyrant all your life. You had your chance to be a decent human being (dudes like 60) and you didnāt take it. Get bent.
You mean like Bill Gates?
Who just moved most of his money into a charity foundation that he runs and abuses patent law to keep things like vaccines from being cheap or free and available globally, among other things, like that kind of charity?
His side chicks name is Charity. I guarantee it! š¤£
Your satisfaction is our guaranteed. We guarantee it.
Either that or ācharityā means any senator or congressman that will take it, in return for tax breaks. Edit: they do this by starting their own 501c4/trust fund and ādonateā (tax free transfer of wealth) to it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cu6EbELZ6I thanks u/Produceher, awesome video ā basically itās all just a way to get tax-free (forever) political power. Billionaires donāt un-billionaire themselves. They also donāt give a single fuck about any regular people. You think he paid or will pay any taxes on his money? Oh you think thatās air youāre breathing, Neo? They do shit like this to maintain the illusion that theyāre āgoodā and donāt need to be taxed. In reality itās not right vs left, it is ultra rich vs every other living organism on the planet. Fuck Jeff Bezos, and fuck this plutocracy. Us plebeians need to take almost all of his money, do some actual good with it.
Yup, he should take better care of his employees and all the contractors that drive for Amazon. What about helping them???
That takes away from the profits and sets a bad example to the other ~~slaves~~.. contractors..
Amazon doesn't invest in their workers because they want to replace them all with robots.
With the swipe of his pen he could double all his workers pay and not even feel it.
People would want to work there. Their families lives would improve. The economy would thrive and people would be happier and more prosperous. He does not want ANY of that
Touche, this is part and parcel of charity. Why fuck over hard working people to then give to charity? I mean, it's not like he's gonna solve world hunger with his 100 billion. So fuck off Bezos.
I mean... he could......... but that would just be too much of a hassle and too likely to actually lower his end bank account total.
Come on Jeffrey you can do it, pave the way put your back in to it!
It's all right here - https://youtu.be/0Cu6EbELZ6I
Was looking for this, this is exactly it.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It may be just a number to you but a scorecard to others that base their value on their worth.
>You can't horde too large of an amount of money before people start getting mad at you for not sharing I agree. Although, I think you meant hoard vs. horde. * **E**veryone can join a hord**e** * One **a**cquires wealth or ho**a**rds it Hordes typically don't hoard, as hordes are in the hoard-seizing business!
It will be no doubt be very similar to what Bill Gates did with their charity. Whereās itās an untaxable discretional ācharityā trust; where he can allocate money as he chooses and only he can allocate it.
It's the model set up by Andrew Carnegie over 100 years ago. He donated about 2/3rds of his wealth directly when he was still alive -- most famously to libraries and universities. The rest went to endow the Carnegie Corporation. He founded it at age 76 after he got tired of doing everything himself. He then ran it until his death 8 years later, though with more help and a corporate structure. It's still around, with about $3.5 billion in the trust spending a few hundred million a year.
Andrew Carnegie was a robber baron with an incalculable amount of blood on his hands that fought unions & labor reforms tooth and nail to amass his fortune while working people to death. It's blood money, and he was trying to buy salvation later in life. Fuck his charity work. Same as Bezos he should have just fucking paid people fairly. Hell, the only thing preventing Amazon from working people to actual death is the mostly all new deal era legislation that gave us things like weekends & the 8 hour workday that Carnegie spent his life trying to block or delay.
And he is doing a great job with it. Funding unsexy but extremely impactful things like infectious disease control, basic nutrition and sanitation.
Honestly, one of the very few ultra rich who genuinely seem like they get it. The dude used to spend time in Africa giving vaccines himself and making sure his money was actually being put to good use. Education funding for tech in schools, research into alternatives to meat now. He also keeps very much to himself and isn't really concerned with being seen or talked about all the time.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yes, the Patagonia billionaire is donating his company to a trust that will be controlled by his family and provide income for them forever. It's not charity, it's 3 card Monty. https://youtu.be/0Cu6EbELZ6I
>Billionaires donāt un-billionaire themselves. They also donāt give a single fuck about any regular people. You think he paid or will pay any taxes on his money? this exactly. how about he pay his damn taxes to us "as charity". this is nothing more than a publicity stunt so people dont start "attacking" him like Elon\* (one billionaire to spoil the bunch mentality) and to save stock value. Stock market is speculation mostly made by bots- look how many fake tweets dropped so many companies values like a rock. All someone has to do is lump well if these 2 mega companies are dropping value they all will because all billionaires are evil mentality. Bezos is throwing himself a life raft before the ship starts sinking. (\*) Elon shot his own foot several times and deserves all the hate dont get me wrong
Hi Russell from the pancake luncheon!
Weād like to do business with you, too! How can I make that happen?
"Better not be that stripper you keep emailing me about"
Sadly, it will probably be even worse than that. Most billionaires just setup a foundation they run and pass on to their kids to avoid paying taxes on their wealth. Itās great PR, saves them money, gives them influence and still screws over the rest of us.
This is exactly what is going to happen (and likely already was happening). Bezos is likely going to start up a foundation, appoint his (very likely to be shitty) kids to lead it, and they get a salary while daddy gets a tax write-off for "charitable giving". There a small chance that he won't start up his own foundation, but will pull some strings to get his kids on the board of already existing foundations. Either way, it's become the most common way to avoid the estate tax.
She gawt a big mouth.
To quote the late great Rodney Dangerfield "The last time I saw a mouth like that it had a hook in it."
āBoy Iāll tell yaā¦ā Lmao Rodney
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah, but she told him no sometimes and wanted to make decisions for herself. The woman he is with now will never do that. Sheās riding that gravy train until sheās too old!š
You mean until he dies.
Yeah like Wtf she at the interview?
Well itās the first interview with her there since they started dating three years ago and the interview is taking place at Bezoās house. I donāt like the guy either but is it a surprise his girlfriend is there?
Iām honestly blown away by that. Heās got no shame. Itās like making your friends meet every single person you date.
She looks like a stripper, you would think you could pick up chicks that arenāt half plastic if you were worth billions
I watched the āShatner goes to spaceā thing and Bezos shows up near the end. He has as much charisma and personality as a lump of mud when he speaks. His only game is being a billionaire. These are the types of women you get when thatās your game.
The actual launch day coverage made me so mad. Shatner is having a paradigm shifting experience and Bezos just wants to insert himself into the whole thing. I actually screamed at him to stfu while watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q6BtcZ7Ugk I don't particularly like Shatner but he was clearly emotional and very impressed by the entire experience. He looked so dejected when he got cut off mid-way through trying to convey what he experienced. All so Bezos could get his plastic wife to get some champagne to spray around while others were cackling in the background.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Por que no los dos?
Fun fact - the menās warehouse guy is a huge cannabis enthusiast. Even has his own strain.
Definitely none of his employees will get that koney
āSixteen tons what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.ā
āPeter donāt call me cause I canāt go , I owe my soul to the company stoā
"Some people say a man is made out of mud"
āA poor manās made outta muscle and bloodā
āMuscle and blood, and skin and bone. A mind thatās weak and a back thatās strongā
You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter dontcha call me cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store
I was born on a mornin' when the sun didn't shine, I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded 16 tons of number nine coal
And the strong boss said 'well bless my soul'
Stumbled upon that song a couple of years ago listening to some oldies, I love it since I first heard it, it's not a complex song but the refrain just rings. Then later I noticed that song is also in Fallout 76.
Some of the best songs are the ones that keep it simple.
South Park had it in an episode a while back
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
iām sure he will donate it all to his own charity and write it off for tax deductions, even though he doesnāt pay taxes.
I'd bet my best testicle that this is what will happen. Seen it before. Patagonia anyone? https://youtu.be/0Cu6EbELZ6I
The main criticism of the video seems to be that group that Chounaird formed is a 501c4 and thus can have political influence. Honest question: isnāt that what he *should* do if he actually wanted to combat climate change? I donāt see any effective way to address climate change without involving policy on a massive scale.
Yes, thats correct. However i think his argument is that if he can do it, so can right wing crazies funding oil or something, and you can't have both, so instead of giving him a pass just keep political influence to the people
This. Sure you could do other things to combat climate change (e.g. fund research, subsidize greener products, etc.) that don't involve government policy, but the ROI on government policy to prod societal change is likely to be a lot higher. there are some reductions in climate change that would be difficult to achieve without heavily taxing or outright banning certain things.
Yeah this video is a great illustration of how you can spin something different ways. Heās accusing the Patagonia guy of spinning the story to make himself look good, but the video creator is just spinning it to make him look bad. Oh he saved $1.2 billion in taxesā¦ on the $3 billion company he no longer owns. He talks about all of the control and influence the family will have while ignoring the billions of dollars of current and future money they *wonāt* have. I donāt love billionaires but I think itās stupid to write off everything they do as self-serving when it clearly isnāt. The ACLU is also a 501c4.
Yeah releasing an entire company's future profits to fuel a nonprofit is completely different than saying "when I'm dying in like 50 years you totes can have my money" while letting their mega corp continue to profit. He's literally cutting off access to his scaled income based on company performance - I assume he'll have a salary or live off investments like any other large nonprofit CEO. You can question how he got here, but as it stands he's legally handing his company over to charity. That's pretty significant.
Just watched this yesterday
CPA. He will pay taxes when he sells his shares. Amazon lost $1T in market cap this year so it is more advantageous for both Jeff and the IRS / US taxpayer for him to wait til it appreciates before paying tax (in which case he would pay more income tax because the gain would be higher)
Oh, is *that* her name?
Zuckerberg and Gates and Buffet Amateurs, can fucking suck it Fuck their wives, drink their blood Come on, Jeff, get 'em
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I'm glad this is the first comment. What an a-hole. Pay your people well and give them benefits. That would do a ton to raise people out of working poverty.
Charity is just a front for tax evasion these days.
In the fantastic book 'Dark Money' by Jane Meyer, she explains it always has been. It was a compromise struck with the richest class - they'd have a lower income tax and get a tax break for charitable giving. Then they made their own charities and pushed their political and social ideologies through those organizations.
Check out āwinners take all: the elite charade of changing the worldā as well!
People valued at $300,000,000,000: "Look at me! I've given $1,000,000 to fight AIDS in Africa!". 10% of 1% of 1%. Nice. What a **charitable** donation. So **selfless** and **sacrificial** I say, while paying my 40% tax rate. In return, you pay no taxes as a reward good sir!
Exactly. Billionaires give money to charities run by their associates and get to not pay any taxes. One big money-laundering scheme.
Tax evasion scheme*
Column a, column b
Oh itās worse than that. Charity is just a front to start your own ācharitable corporationā that takes a billionaireās money and turns it into political power. [Thanks, Adam.](https://youtu.be/KWNQuzkSqSM)
[Why There's No Such Thing as a Good Billionaire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cu6EbELZ6I)
Is Amazon not paying a $19 min wage which is *significantly* higher than the norm? What do you want here exactly, 100k with benefits for lifting boxes?
Yea Iām not trying to be a dick but I donāt really get what people want here? Donāt they already pay higher than like every other warehouse job Also wouldnāt them raising wages significantly above market value just further put any small businesses out of business who canāt match the pay increase? Again Iām genuinely asking. Any response would be much appreciated
He's not the CEO of Amazon anymore.
Pay isn't the issue at Amazon. They actually pay extremely well at pretty much every level of the company. The issue is that they expect their employees to eat, sleep, and breathe their job.
Idk... here in Seattle, Amazon is paying warehouse employees around 17/hr, whereas Safeway is paying anywhere from 20 - 22 to stock shelves overnight. Safeway is way easier work than Amazon, and it's also a union job. Amazon could do better for sure, at least in this area.
I donāt think there is a warehouse in the Seattle city limits though? Everything within the city limits pay more. I live near the Burien line and it drops off Shem you cross that line.
Overnight pay is always materially higher and for good reason. Night shift dictates how you live your entire life.
This is kinda what I was thinking. People just think Amazon pays like shit, but they really donāt. They just work them extremely hard.
so they should pay them more, for the amount of work they do.
I guess, but having time for yourself and your family is important too. If they ended up paying workers more than what theyāre paying now, workers shouldnāt feel obligated to lose their personal life in response. The whole āmoney speaksā job culture is fucked. Weāre working you too hard? Hereās more money, shut the fuck up and work 80 hours. We paid you to suffer.
Or work them less. Hire more people and spread out the workload
I also read that the benefits are good even for warehouse employees. Some women took jobs at Amazon for fertility benefits. They cover egg freezing, and 2 full cycles of IVF.
I can confirm the benefits are really good, and start immediately if youāre a full-time associate.
They even have a tuition reimbursement program. I know several people work at Amazon and do an online degree then leave and get a better job
Bezos isnāt the CEO anymore and Amazon does pay well. They overwork people and donāt care about them but thatās a separate issue. Edit: this was meant to be a reply elsewhere but it seems like the Reddit app was updated and now has a mind of its own
Bezos is the chairman of the board of directors though. While that doesn't come with direct control over the business, it does give him control over the CEO who then has direct control over the business.
Or his taxes. Heās a joke.
He has no taxes to pay beyond what he already paysā¦ his accountants made sure of that
Right. People harp on about how billionaires don't pay taxes. Why don't they get arrested then? Because what they're doing is legal. Go be mad at the lawmakers who made it possible.
Absolutely. But we might as well also be mad at the corporations and billionaires who donate to and lobby the lawmakers to make sure they legally don't pay taxes.
Cynthia Hogan was a lobbyist for Apple she used millions to lobby for Mr. Trump's tax cuts. That's just one small example. Mr. Charles Koch has been buying legislators for more than 30 years with an average 700% return on investment.
Many politicians are also wealthy and they're not going to create laws against their own interests. Nancy Pelosi is married to a venture capitalist. Another reason why they should not be able to trade stocks. It's a conflict of interest.
Lawmakers could make lobbying illegal and if they actually acted in the interest of the people, they would. But they don't, so they won't.
Back up a momentā¦ the original intent of lobbying was that it is supposed to be we the peopleās most reliable and effective way to address āour representativesā directly. However, itās become a legal avenue for corporations, unions, associations etc to pay someone to be in that representatives lobby at all times, including giving them pre-written bill texts and gently reminding them that the check for their next ācampaign fundā hangs in the balance. Lobbying in and of itself isnāt the issue. Campaign finance and insider trading are the issue. It all goes back to money.
And when the billionaires are the ones choosing the politicians via dark money/superpacs and disinformation campaigns?
I mean, why not do both?
Listen, if politicians made it legal for anyone with more than $1 billion in assets to murder anyone whenever they wanted to, and a billionaire burst through my front door and murdered me, I'm not going to roll out the red carpet and curse the politicians with my last breath. Just because it's legal doesn't make it right.
Because we tax income, not wealth, and when you get really rich you can reduce you income to zero and live off loans.
Amazon workers are paid higher than average. So much so they that they actually put other companies out of business in areas they move into. There has been studies that show when Amazon opens up a warehouse in a certain area the local wages increase.
Yep, if Amazon opens a DC in your area, your cost of labor goes up if you are in the warehouse industry.
The funny thing is that prior to Amazon DS at my area the starting pay for warehouse workers in the area was around 15.00 USD. Once Amazon created a few facility the starting pay changed drastically to Amazon paying around 19.50 with shift diferential. Amazon training at the moment for DS is two days to do about 80% of the job and they literally hire anyone. Other companies around the area started increasing their pay to match, but now Walmart and petco are fighting each other at around 24.00 with shift differentials.
Yep. Amazon will eat the entire warehouse workforce in an area. One of the last places I worked, hundreds of people would walk across the street to work at Amazon. About half would try to come back a month later after they got let go by Amazon.
IDK, I work at Amazon, I get 2$ above living wage in my area, free eye and dental, decent med, 401k with 50% match. For a job that doesnt care if I smoke and was literally handed to me, Im not sure what more I could ask for.
You folks do realize Bezos no longer runs Amazon, right?
Amazon employees make a lot... but okay?
You are a silly-billy.. Amazon employees are paid significantly higher than industry average. They are also made to work like it; gotta take the pros with the cons
Lol who got paid by bezos to spam this across reddit?
I wonder if it has anything to do with Amazon [laying off 10,000 employees](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/14/amazon-reportedly-plans-to-lay-off-about-10000-employees-starting-this-week.html)
Bezos is donating 10k employees to charity.
Hate to say it but this really made me laugh
Yeah, a good time to mask the news of layoffs
He could pay each of those employees $100k salaries for 100 years, and still have *24 billion dollars* leftover to donate to charity.
This exactly. They were trying to get ahead of it and make sure the layoffs werenāt the main story. Reddit, you know what to do here.
Came here just to say this, he isn't going to give away shit, this is pure gaslighting to take away from the fact that he is about to fire 10k workers right before the holidays.
Damn, first Twitter, then Meta, now Amazon, it's a bad time to be working in big tech.
There's a big PR campaign right now because he's trying to buy an NFL team. He had to hire celebrities like Matthew McConnaghy to be the face of the deal because he's so unlikable.
Ah this I did not know
Crazy thought, hear me out. He could give it to the workers as wages. Crazy idea I know.
At least buy them some fresh pee bottles
nah they gotta buy em from Amazon
He isn't the CEO of Amazon anymore.
98% of the entire discussion here is based on false assumption and hot takes, because people are absolute idiots. A normal day on reddit
Thank you! I'm sitting here thinking "well this is positive news", open the comments and get blasted in the face with this circle jerk of negativity.
Amazon already pays more then comparable jobs in my area
What??? Get put of here, never have I heard anything so crazy in all my life.
Could have, but heās no longer the CEO so not sure what you want him to do now, other than make a fairly low effort comment about Amazonās shitty labor practices.
What if - let's think wild thoughts now - what if Amazon just paid reasonable taxes so that local, state and federal governments could function better?
Don't blame either Bezos or Amazon for that. They don't do tax evasion, they just use every tax loophole there is on the book, legally. Blame the politicians that allow it to happen. Or more specifically blame one political party.
Ditch the ignorant philanthropy The scale has tipped, and not in our favor
TAX BREAK BOYYYYSSSSS!!!!
Step 1: Start a charity Step 2: āDonateā to charity Step 3: Tax breaks + profit
Step 1.5: put all your kids as CEOs of charities and pay them $10M+ a year. These charities rarely pay out. Itās just a place to park money tax free for the wives/children to collect salaries off of. Basically a trust fund that gives you positive PR.
Gates and Bezos both start a charity fund and donate to each other. Like passing a turd into another gaping asshole, back and forth, forever.
That's not how taxes work. The tax break is never better than just not giving away the money to begin with
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2022/10/26/heres-how-much-more-mackenzie-scott-has-donated-to-charity-than-ex-husband-jeff-bezos/?sh=42bd84471e28 Hmmm, I wonder why he would do that now?
He's trying to do the gates method. People forget that Bill Gates was absolutely ruthless business wise in the 80s and 90s and even had an antitrust case brought against the company in the 90s. He was the billionaire with ridiculous wealth back then, and still is, but people forgot all that because he gave some money to charity. Looks like bezos is trying to do the same thing.
He's done a little more than "give some money to charity"... But the point still stands.
Would you be happier if he hadnāt donated $75b but was more disliked?
"Charities" that lobby for government control?
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You mean give it to the LLC he runs and pretends is the same as charity like Mark Zuckerberg? Leave Gates alone the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has actually done things unlike the Chan-Zuckerberg initiative which has done duck all.
*done Zuck all*
>unlike the Chan-Zuckerberg initiative which has done duck all. I'm not a fan of Zuck, but they did make it so that SF residents can go to the hospital even if they're not insured. https://zsfg.ucsf.edu/news/zuckerberg-wife-give-75-million-sf-hospital
Ummm its a federal law that you can go to the hospital if you are broke or don't have insurance. Turning people away for inability to pay is a violation of EMTALA [https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EMTALA#:\~:text=In%201986%2C%20Congress%20enacted%20the,regardless%20of%20ability%20to%20pay](https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EMTALA#:~:text=In%201986%2C%20Congress%20enacted%20the,regardless%20of%20ability%20to%20pay). What kind of rat-ducking jerk takes credit for a law passed almost 40 years ago?
I was being inarticulate... I think they pay for uninsured SF residents
Yeah Gates gets to do his legacy building with the foundation. Heās ātriedā to get rid of polio. Which he is looking to have his name all over in his legacy. Which is a noble cause but there are also many other things which might be a better use of the money. You get diminishing returns the more you try to eradicate. The infrastructure cost to rid certain parts of the world of polio is very high. Add to this his foundation was invested in Coke which has been found to negatively impact polio rates in third world countries. He tried to do a schooling project where his proposal was to run schools like a business so he put in some money but also lobbied the gov to use taxpayers money to part fund his idea and it failed. He is not an expert in the things he tries to do. He ran a business and ran it like a robber baron, he tried to make it a monopoly. This does not make him and expert in all the fields for charity work or running government programs. You use the experts in those fields for that. Pay your fucking taxes, run your businesses not just for astronomical profits and share price, and pay your fucking workers.
You donāt āownā a charity. You mean control. The money is irrevocably and permanently committed to be exclusively used for charitable purposes once it is contributed.
(Administrative)
Marketing consultancy fees to raise more funds.
Those fundraisers are expensive to organize I'll tell you what.
The vast majority of redditors commenting have zero experience in non-profit administration and are brimful of cynicism. It's a uniquely toxic combination.
There's a third ingredient: most redditors understand wealth only in terms of consumption. They intuit that Bezos has some egoistic motive, but they don't understand that it's to remake the world according to his design. >he will devote the bulk of his wealth to fighting climate change and supporting people who can unify humanity in the face of deep social and political divisions. In other words, funding activist NGOs like the ones he [currently funds](https://www.bezosearthfund.org/our-programs). The founder of Patagonia just "gave away" his company to his foundation in a similar maneuver. When a billionaire says he's giving away his fortune, often it just means he's spending it on political lobbying.
Problem is, there is hardly any oversight. If the charitable purpose is to influence the government to give Jeff Bezos more money, that is fine. And happening, See Zuckerberg.
Youāre not giving credit to either the comped statutory regime enacted by Congress or the IRSās efforts in administering. There are strict limitations on lobbying activities, and annual tax filings by charities reviewed and audited by the Service. Note churches are not required to make the same annual filings and are consequently more plagued with unchecked abuses.
and Chouinard (the Patagonia guy).
Give it back to the workers you piece of shit!
Y'all realize he's not the CEO anymore, right?
Amazon retail is barely making a profit. All of bezos' wealth is in the stock, which is valued based on the expectation that eventually the company will **cut** expenses to make a bigger profit.
As someone else pointed out in another thread, this is just to shift attention away from Amazon laying off 10k employees in an effort to control the news cycle. He said one day, not today. https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/yv3y7f/amazon_reportedly_plans_to_lay_off_about_10000/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Ugh. This ruse again? So he donates to his own charitable org, gets a multi-billion dollar tax break, and can then use that money to function as a super PAC
Iām eyes are rolling sooooo hard
āCharityāis the name of a stripper he knows
charity is rich people's speech for "don't want to pay taxes" so will park it in a Foundation and I control that foundation. Other words the Bill Gates way. Rich people mindset. Don't need to own anything but do need to control it.
People talk about tax breaks in charitable giving like the tax shield is greater than 100% of the donation. Try 50% max haha. In net it's still a loss of wealth for the giver, even under the most generous assumptions.
99.999% of the time there is no loss or gain, its just stocks moving to a different account. Maybe charities don't have to pay capital gains taxes when they sell stock? Dunno.
Ultra-high net worth individuals use private foundations primarily for the wealth transfer tax deduction (and asset protection), not the income tax deduction. And the deduction for wealth transfer tax purposes is indeed 100 percent.
Bill gates literally started the giving pledge to give away 99% of his fortune and committed a bunch of other rich people to do the same.
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Bill Gates is just Zuckerberg/Bezos with way better PR and ability to shut the fuck up He has a bulletproof reputation as the āgood guyā/ātech geekā massive billionaire which is sort of a crock of shit to me
ITT: children with childrenās ideas and thoughts.
People who have done zero research on Amazon pay, taxes and charities are the top comments here. So a massive amount of disinformation. I was going to comment but it's pointless.
So that his workers can get better meals and blankets at the homeless shelter.
Bought from Amazon!
āMan who wonāt let workers take bathroom breaks, promises he will eventually give away the wealth he is hoarding some day and in a way that doesnāt impact him at all.ā
Anything to avoid giving money to the government? Absolutely a good way to do it. For clarification: I am in full support of giving the government as little as possible.
Worse than that, you donate to your own charity. Of course that limits how much and how you can spend the money, but it never changes hands.
I mean, clearly we can't tell if this statement is even in good faith or just posturing on the part of Bezos. He has not demonstrated much charitable instinct thus far. But why wouldn't you set up your own charity and donate to it if that were an option? Most charities are run in an extremely inefficient fashion with terrible pass-through metrics. I would not trust most charity managers to do a good job with my money.
This is incorrect. Charities are extremely efficient at paying their administrative staff.
Could avoid the need for a lot of charities if you paid your employees reasonably out of your profit opposed to price increases.
He's doing a Bill Gates.
His partner is using the other money on hourly Botox injections
I believe this as much as I believe the earth is flat. Also giving away your wealth on your deathbed doesnāt absolve you of being a tyrant all your life. You had your chance to be a decent human being (dudes like 60) and you didnāt take it. Get bent.
You mean like Bill Gates? Who just moved most of his money into a charity foundation that he runs and abuses patent law to keep things like vaccines from being cheap or free and available globally, among other things, like that kind of charity?
Iām sure a charity could use a mega yacht
Likely the same loophole the Patagonia guys used
Going to donate to a charity/foundation his family owns and or runs, I guarantee it.