Amazon
founder Jeff Bezos, as of July 16, was reported to be worth
$150,000,000,000. If counting all of
those zeros is dizzying, the number making him the richest person in the world is 150 billion dollars! In fact he’s so wealthy, he has 50% more than
his nearest competitor, Bill Gates, who is slumming it with just a net worth of just 95 billion bucks. Forget about worrying
over the 1% of the 1%. He alone is like a small nation. It’s a shocking embarrassment of wealth.
But he can do something good – he can give back to the industries and businesses that he’s destroyed with his predatory pricing tactics. Yes, Mr. Bezos can buy back his soul, starting with the book publishing industry.
But he can do something good – he can give back to the industries and businesses that he’s destroyed with his predatory pricing tactics. Yes, Mr. Bezos can buy back his soul, starting with the book publishing industry.
Bezos,
who makes over a quarter-million dollars every single minute of the day, night,
weekend and holiday, cannot only afford to be generous but should feel
compelled to be so.
He
built Amazon on a key principle – undermine the competition by selling
everything at a loss, killing your competition. He was able to do so by
exploiting the rules. He didn’t have to
charge sales tax on sales and he got to use money from an overpriced stock that
Wall Street kept inflating despite repeated annual losses, simply because the
profit potential in the long-term looked so appealing. Bless him – he’s the ultimate ruthless
capitalist with guts, timing, and luck.
But what was it all for?
He
has uber piles of money that he will never get to spend. Does he do this for
ego? Is it just a big game? Does he want to take over the world – a power
trip?
I
know consumers love Amazon. It’s
one-stop shopping from your iphone.
Everything appears to be cheap.
You get shipments the next day – even same day. They refund you on anything for any reason –
and often let you keep the thing you want to return. Who could argue with such
beauty?
But
he kills jobs and stifles real competition.
He has damaged the book industry and threatens so many industries and
major companies. He’s become too
powerful and represents as much of a threat to the United States as Putin or
anyone.
So,
if Bezos suddenly has a change of heart, if he has a heart, he can make amends
by giving billions of dollars to the book industry. Open up more bookstores. Donate to
libraries. Raise the prices you charge
for books, to allow for fairer competition. Fund free speech, literacy,
and writing organizations. You can go
from goat to hero and ride in to town as the knight in shining armor.
Or,
Bezos can be remembered as the man a recent Time article says "ran his company
with predatory pricing and a remorseless workplace.”
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