I saw a comment on Medium the other day that summed up my feelings on Amazon:
Third, his “business” isn’t even a business. Amazon, for 99% of its history, lost more money than it earned. The reason it even still exists today is because it was propped up by truly gigantic loans in the form of stock shares and VC capital. Propping up a non-profitable company until it grows big enough to crush any and all competition is literally the Communist Chinese model of “capitalism.”
Fourth, all of Bezos’s “wealth” is built on the backs of overworked, underpaid, and horrifically mistreated employees who aren’t even allowed enough time to use the bathroom, a sizeable percentage of which are elderly folks who, in a more just society, would be enjoying their retirement.
Using this estimate, the overall business, without AWS and Prime, lost about $2 billion last quarter. Although advertising is included here, too, this loss is almost all from the retail side of the business.
I don't doubt that Bezos is wicked smahhht but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you borrow so much money that you can run a business at a loss for decades and undercut everyone that you'll be successful. Except he clearly isn't even able to do that.
Maybe this is just the new way of running a company? Companies that are satisfied with big profits, but don't continually re-invest those profits into R & D and growth are going to eventually get steamrolled by companies that do. We're seeing the same kinds of stuff happening with SpaceX and ULA. The fact that these companies can bankroll this growth for decades using all the modern financial tools available to them is a problem with the system.
Bezos wealth is built by shareholders who invested in Amazon. What you're referring to is a moral and regulatory criticism, which frankly shouldn't be a criticism of Bezos himself but rather the people who govern his company and wealth.
Amazon is 25 years old.
I saw a comment on Medium the other day that summed up my feelings on Amazon:
Third, his “business” isn’t even a business. Amazon, for 99% of its history, lost more money than it earned. The reason it even still exists today is because it was propped up by truly gigantic loans in the form of stock shares and VC capital. Propping up a non-profitable company until it grows big enough to crush any and all competition is literally the Communist Chinese model of “capitalism.”
Fourth, all of Bezos’s “wealth” is built on the backs of overworked, underpaid, and horrifically mistreated employees who aren’t even allowed enough time to use the bathroom, a sizeable percentage of which are elderly folks who, in a more just society, would be enjoying their retirement.
https://medium.com/@lifeinromania/jeff-bezos-is-a-fraud-458f...
Another note from another site The Street:
Using this estimate, the overall business, without AWS and Prime, lost about $2 billion last quarter. Although advertising is included here, too, this loss is almost all from the retail side of the business.
https://www.thestreet.com/opinion/amazon-is-losing-money-fro... operations-14571703
I don't doubt that Bezos is wicked smahhht but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you borrow so much money that you can run a business at a loss for decades and undercut everyone that you'll be successful. Except he clearly isn't even able to do that.