Friday, July 27, 2018

Jeff Bezos, Wealthiest Man Ever, Should Give Back To The Book Community




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.

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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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2018. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America and participated in a PR panel at the Sarah Lawrence College Writers Institute Conference.

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