Jeff Bezos - worlds first trillionaire?

Link - the process has been greatly accelerated by the pandemic.

Wealth. Tax.

What if I told you he lives in a state with no income tax.

The same state 2 other top 10 Billionaires in the country live.

That is about to call a Special Session of the Legislature to cut the budget due to the pandemic.

Which has........nothing to do with Bezos

Well he's right.

You can't put the states budget problems on Bezos.

The state didn't have an income tax long before Bezos showed up.

And Bezos isn't at fault for the stupidity of politicians who refuse to properly administer the budget.

Now if you want to say that the state should switch to an income tax so people like Bezos have to pay than say that. Of course Bezos will do what the rich in New York did that has Coumo crying and that's leave to go to another state.

But hey at least your new state income tax will tax the middle class!

Also I don't see him becoming a trillionare.

He's up because Amazon is booming due to the virus. That however certainly doesn't mean he's on track to do it by 2026.

This company that made the decision he would be the first is probably just using clickbait to get people to look at them.

Oh, bull. The guy has Amazon in every corner of the world and someone was gonna be a trillionaire sooner or later.

I wouldn't be surprised if he hit that milestone sooner than that.

That's a problem with the government bending the knee to rich cheapskates, not inherently an issue with income tax.

We had this problem solved in the '50s by charging 90 percent tac on company profits, so companies re-invested money I to their stateside businesses. They hired more people at better wages, and that was how the middle class could get taxed without going broke.

Now thanks to Nixon and Reagan, companies not only thrive like welfare queens , they've shipped jobs over to exploitable countries AND don't pay a dime in tax! But hey, trickle down economics is great, amirite?

You're absolutely right. No Democrat since Nixon has been involved in selling out America to China or other exploitable countries.

None at all.

Where would we be with out the all wise and all knowing Shirogayne?

This is why the higher taxes on the rich need be federal.

And they can be designed to start well above what anyone would consider the "middle class."

That still does nothing for the individual state budgets.

How would taxing companies 90 percent on their profits encourage them to invest more in their domestic interests and make it less likely that they'll move jobs overseas?

It gives Congress more money to support and bail out the states, which it should do anyway if it wants to avoid a deeper depression.

Perhaps the states shouldn't get to the point they need bailing out in the first fucking place.

If he does become a trillionaire, good for him. He created a business that caters to what people want and/or need. If others don't like that, that's their problem. His being or becoming a trillionaire isn't any different than others who are billionaires. He will just have a bit, well quite a bit more money than them. Each of the billionaires were able to create or build a product, a service, or something else that others needed, wanted, or use. So, do I wish I had come up with Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Tesla, etc... Fuck yes, but I didn't, so all I can do is wish or hope. But that doesn't mean I'm entitled to any of that wealth or owed any of that wealth. Maybe I'll come up with the next great idea, the odds are way against me. So if I do, awesome! If I don't, oh well.

Yeah, no one gets to having that much money based on talent or personal hard work, or even luck. Hell, we've only ever had one lotto go over 2 billion one time.

You have to have a rigged system in place to outspend the competition and undersell them until they leave the market, then raise pricing once you're the only game in town. See also: how Bezos killed diapers.com

I don't think that's the link you meant to post.

I'm conflicted here. OTOH, I'm separated from most of my family by thousands of miles, so even if I can't be there for birthdays and graduations, I can rely on Amazon. And, P.S., I think Bill Maher is 85% egotistical asshole.

However:



Teddy Roosevelt is rolling in his grave.

Trillionaires should not exist in a country where people are living and dying on the streets.

Just 4 months ago Washington State had a budget surplus of $941 million and a Budget Stabilization Account (aka the Rainy Day Fund) of $1.620 Billion.

Aside from not being under the control of Trump at the Federal level I’m not sure what you think Washington state should have done differently to better prepare for yet again another Republican Recession.

No, y’all are wrong.

Income and Capital Gains taxes, especially those aimed at the ultra rich are more stable than the sales and B&O taxes Washington’s budget currently relies on.

A budget with a good mix from multiple sources would be more stable than what we currently have.

Didn't say anything about stability.

Said you can't blame Bezo's for the state not having a state income tax. Nor can you blame him for the mismanagement of the states budget.

Steve Ballmer, Jeff Bezos fund effort to defeat state income tax

What mismanagement of the state budget?

Just 4 months ago Washington State had a budget surplus of $941 million and a Budget Stabilization Account (aka the Rainy Day Fund) of $1.620 Billion.

Aside from not being under the control of Trump at the Federal level I’m not sure what you think Washington state should have done differently to better prepare for yet again another Republican Recession.

OMG!!!

An American participated in the political system in the state he lives in and he donated a $100,000 to the effort.

Oh the humanity!!!!

Only $100,000?

I thought it might have been like $20 million.

I suppose next you're going to tell me that Bezos voted multiple times against the bill:

No 1,616,273 64.15%
Yes 903,319 35.85%

What the fuck is wrong with the world when lower-middle-class schleps like @Zombie will defend the elite class? Seems to me that the billionaires can do a pretty good job of defending themselves, what with all that money.

Seriously. Is this some bizarre perversion of the "American Dream"? Because bottom-feeders like Zombie have ZERO chance of ever attaining the wealth that folks like Bezos have.

What the fuck is wrong with people?

Defending what?

Do you not realize that the people of Washington State didn't want an income tax along with Bezos?

Do you not understand that the people of Washington State were smart to realize that with an income tax THEY would be paying the majority of the money to the state. Bezos wouldn't and if Bezos got pissed enough he'd simply go to another state.

How do you take $7.8 trillion from them?

I swear it's like you idiots on the left think they all have cash in giant vaults.

Almost all that wealth doesn't exist as cash. It's property, stocks, and other assets.

Ask the French. They had it figured out.

Also, it's about time we started taxing the fuck out of churches, synagogues, mosques, etc.

Those cocksuckers want to get involved in the political process, tax them like the rest of us assholes.

And as soon as they realized they fucked up their economy they ran the other way.

On this I agree.