His idea would be fine and well if prices remained the same, but as people's incomes rise so do prices so there simply is no real gain other than just looking at higher numbers ...... and by the way, this comes from a man that predicts his business will fail while he continues to sell of an average $1 billion each month .....
Amazon
will fail eventually because every great empire is either conquered from without or crumbles from within (and often by some combination). Amazon's prices have increased noticeably over the past year and the wage hikes are at least partially responsible. Ebay could have lured back a lot of their sellers if not for Paypal screwing them over recently. All it takes is for a number of economic variables to align just right and fortunes can change very quickly, and Bezos understands this.
Agreed, raising minimum wage does not solve the problem. I believe the real solution is to reduce the cost of living. How do we do that? I have not figured that out yet.
The ideal way would be to reduce corruption throughout the public and private sectors and especially where they overlap. For example, if you have insurance the price of everything it pays towards immediately doubles. You also aren't allowed to band together to collectively bargain for lower prices from insurance companies. You can also be financially
punished for not having private insurance. Why is any of this legal? Because the insurance industry, which is also the medial and financial industry, is totally in bed with the federal government whose most powerful officials have huge stakes in those industries. Why is
that legal? Why can you be a sitting Congressmen and also own millions worth of stock in the very industries you regulate? In some cases we have Senators who are actually board members of these companies. This is called an oligarchy and its about as far from what the founders of America envisioned as you can get. Of course these are the same people who also control the media, law enforcement and make all the laws so there is no hope of changing the system in a meaningful way from within. The best way we could effect positive change would be if everyone just stopped paying taxes until strict legal barriers were put between Wall Street and K Street. The US debt is so large that a physical dollar bill is worth more than its monetary value but tax dollars are used to pay the interest on that debt. A taxpayer revolt would threaten the whole house of cards and hopefully force the government to the bargaining table. Step one would be the reinstatement of Glass-Stegall, which used to keep investment banks and the regular banks from being one and the same. Then you'd need to separate the banks, insurance and medical companies..basically break up any hegemony that profits from gouging the taxpayer. All government subsidies for industries would be abolished, period..no more corporate welfare. Its insane that the oil industry still gets subsidies and almost as insane that the "green energy" guys do as well. Let them get loans and grants like everyone else does if they really believe in their businesses.
This is just a first step to regaining some semblance of balance in the economy..there would be so much more to do and none of it is simple. We'd need to seriously examine the advantages and disadvantages of overhauling social welfare programs - government entitlements make up a
third of the US budget. Minimum wage, affordable housing and so many other fundamentals of living would need to be looked at in depth with the goal of making sure nobody goes without life's essentials but that the taxpayer isn't getting shafted in the process. Most people don't mind paying taxes as long as they know the money isn't being wasted or pocketed by corrupt oligarchs.
