I don't have an issue with people working hard and making money, but then using said money to implement totalitarian controls on my lifestyle which they don't even want to abide by themselves is another matter entirely.
Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon CEO today with a $203 billion fortune
- Thread starter midian182
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Well it's deft not why Amazon doesn't pay taxes. Those are just loopholes.
The problem is that never in human history have we seen such extreme of wealth and poverty. A mass of people who don't have access to water, food or roof while few can live tens of thousands of lives on their savings without working. Admitting that these people worked millions times more or were millions times more intelligent than the standard human being and deserved their money, nevertheless their extreme wealth compared to the poverty of billions shakes the foundations of Justice in the heart of truthful men. In addition to this, we have seen in the recent past that they use their money to control states through NGO and lobbies or guerrillas. Envy is not the reason why people start finding these extremes unacceptable but their inner sense of Justice. As to the solution to this, it is clearly not communism as good incomes stimulate hard work. Neither is the capitalist model that we know, as it generates more extreme of wealth and poverty. Rather would it be an exponential tax that would relieve the poor and limit the wealth of what I 'd call the "ultra rich". A millionaire is rich enough while a billionaire is indecent and his power is too strong.
Avro Arrow
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Actually, it mostly enriches the owners of said shipbuilder. In any case, the number is far smaller than what could be achieved with less than ¼ of that. You also have to wonder how much of that construction is done by robotics.
Well, it's not hard to find information like that with Google. It would cost $11,000,000,000 per year to completely end world hunger. So Bezos could theoretically end world hunger for close to 20 years with all of his wealth or 5 years on a whim, and that's JUST Bezos. Other billionaires like Gates, Musk and Buffett could do the exact same thing. I read an article that says "Buffett is halfway to giving away all of his billions" which made me wonder "Then how come no fundamental changes for the better have been made in the world?".
So, the one thing that's actually GOOD is what scares you. I don't know what to say to that.
So $100,000,000 is supposed to show generosity from a man who has literally 2000X that amount of money? What you're saying is that if someone has $100,000 in wealth, they become some kind of hero for donating $100 to help hungry people. You have some pretty low standards because I donate more than that yearly and I have nowhere near that amount. To you, I must be an absolute SAINT.
Bezos' total donations were $2,600,000,000 or 1/78th of his total wealth. When I think of what I donate to the Salvation Army, The Canadian Cancer Society and Sick Kids Hospital, I donate about 1/20th of my total wealth every single year and since I'm not unbelievably rich like him, I actually FEEL IT sometimes. You know what though? That's kind of the point. Donating to a good cause is supposed to be a sacrifice. Bezos isn't sacrificing anything. He could literally donate $202,000,000,000 and not feel it. I do not understand why Americans want so badly to worship billionaire psychopaths to the point that you mount such lame defences for them.
Avro Arrow
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You'll always find Americans who are willing to defend the billionaires. The USA claims that its holy symbol is the ✟ but it's actually the $.
TheBigFatClown
Posts: 1,110 +495
I'm not defending Jeff Bezos by any stretch of the imagination. As I stated I dont know as much about him as you do. The argument about how much someone who is better off should have to sacrifice for those who aren't is not a new argument at all. But I'm confined to a cellphone and dont have the energy to invest myself fully in it.
You make good points. Except thinking that vaccines are all so wonderful. Especially when government is encouraging the rapid adoption of vaccines that are still classified as EUA vaccines. Hell, I could argue that the scientific reasoning behind vaccines is safe and good for humanity.
But if that's all you wanted me to believe then you need to look at the whole picture. It's not that simple these days.
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BadThad
Posts: 1,356 +1,633
Jeff Bozos is fn weird as hell. The guys mind is not right! He seeks to keep his money and power by ascribing to far leftist ideas. Every wonder why the rich promote far left ideas? Because it's their best chance at keep their money and power while keeping everyone else down.
Agree with everything. Except the mass vaccination with an experimental jab that has no legal liability is not GOOD, IMO. And as you stated, they aren't generous. Gates foundation is serving his own purpose, and it's not only about money.
TheBigFatClown
Posts: 1,110 +495
Glad I'm not the only person who doesn't hold such a simple narrow view of vaccines. Vaccines are way too entrenched in money and politics these days to be trusted completely. You cant just walk around like a parrot screaming "All vaccines are good...BALK.....All vaccines are good....BALK!!!! Rush out and get the latest EUA vaccine as fast as you can...BALK!!!!"
Your body is not an OS and you cant just roll these updates to it back so easily.. if at all.
Your body is not an OS and you cant just roll these updates to it back so easily.. if at all.
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Avro Arrow
Posts: 3,720 +4,821
I don't think that the vaccination program is experimental because they did do the proper testing with it. The reason that it was released so quickly is that governments generally are loathe to get off of their collective asses and actually do anything within a reasonable amount of time. This creates the illusion that all these years are needed to properly test something. This is also the same reason that the courts are so backlogged everywhere.
In this pandemic situation, governments had no choice but to actually do something in a reasonable amount of time and the result was so shockingly different that people don't trust it. I've been double-vaccinated with no issues whatsoever and that's true for over 99.999% of people. Nothing is 100% safe so we work with what we can. People are all up in arms about the blood clotting issue but it's still 100x safer than the birth control pill, something that nobody bats an eyelid about. The reason for this is that the media doesn't mention the dangers of the birth control pill and so people don't flip out over it.
This is media-propagated hysteria that was designed to do one thing and one thing only; to make you watch more of whatever news network you want to watch. It has worked so damn well that I wouldn't be surprised if they're all in cahoots over it. As always, follow the money. Who benefits from people being afraid? The corporate news media does because fearful people watch more news and that drives up ad revenue.
Avro Arrow
Posts: 3,720 +4,821
What I'm on about is that billionaires like him do keep the wealth "hoarded away" as stock so that they don't get taxed because capital gains are essentially not taxed in the USA. The money he uses day-to-day is via a loan from a bank because loans aren't taxable. I don't entirely remember how it works but this video explains it perfectly. It's the dirty little secret of the opulent class:
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Avro Arrow
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Well, I have a personal experience to share with you. My uncle Frank is 71 and he's an asthmatic and epileptic. He got infected with COVID which, for some reason, caused things like enlargement of his heart which were life-threatening. He was in Montreal General Hospital for three weeks as a result. Fortunately, he had already received his first shot when the virus hit him. The doctor told us that if Frank HADN'T had a COVID shot, he wouldn't have lasted more than two days. The doctor knew that she was stating the obvious when she said this to us. He almost died even with the shot because of his other conditions. That "horrible" vaccine saved his life.
I've had both shots without issue, one AstraZeneca and one Pfizer. I get more pain in my arm from a tetanus booster than I did from these vaccines. The vaccine saved my uncle's life and the lives of millions around the world, possibly even me. Thankfully, I'll never have to know if it would be fatal to me. If I ever get COVID, I know that I won't have to suffer a terrible death without being able to breathe. Don't tell me that this is a bad thing just because some crazy right-wing science denier says so. Anti-vaxxers are every bit as crazy as flat-Earthers because both of them deny science for one cockamamie reason or another that they invented.
Avro Arrow
Posts: 3,720 +4,821
Well, I've had both shots and I'm still here. I'm not going to be frightened by some crazy right-wing science denier on Faux News with an IQ comparable to that of a flat-Earther.
TheBigFatClown
Posts: 1,110 +495
The "my (insert family relation or friend's name here) story" is what we know as an anecdote. A single isolated example. Do you think it makes sense to make life altering decisions based on 1 persons experience? I'm sorry but I like to look at life from a much higher perspective. Your anecdote has value but only when added to the entire storyline.
And if we step back a bit and look at more than just 'your uncle' we see that many young people are developing myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) after having gotten these life saving cocktails injected into their bloodstream. It's not a pretty picture. So, anecdotes are fun but we have to always remember to include them with all the data and not view them in isolation.
And millions of people who have a differing viewpoint from yours aren't going to be "frightened" by every new virus that the CDC and WHO wanna prop up every season. So, we're even. Glad you're still alive after mixing cocktails from 2 different corporations that have tested their vaccines all of 6 months now? Yeah, that's smart. Wow, I don't know what else I can say. Good luck to you! I hope you're here in 5 years. I really do.
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Avro Arrow
Posts: 3,720 +4,821
I've had several vaccines my whole life. I get a flu shot every season (haven't had the flu in over a decade now which is pretty nice). As a child, I was vaccinated against polio, measles, tetanus and who knows what else. Vaccines can even cure cancer now with immunotherapy. Nothing will ever make me stop being thankful that vaccines exist. As for the six-month trial period, it's not THAT big of a deal. Remember, vaccines have been around longer than either you are I have so it's not like it's some "new-fangled thing" that just came out. It's a vaccine against a particularly deadly flu virus but not genetically much different than the influenza virus.
The vaccines are always less dangerous than the disease and I've never been a gambler. I'm not willing to roll the dice on whether or not I get the virus when a vaccine is present and was issued to millions of people before I became eligible for it. Science doesn't scare me and never has. It has always been religion that scares me.
TheBigFatClown
Posts: 1,110 +495
Science doesn't scare me either. The problem is there is more than 1 scientist on planet Earth. Which scientist or group of scientist do you have the most faith in? It seems to me that the most infamous scientist of our current era is Dr. "flip-flop" Faucci. "Don't need a mask, wait...wear a wask...wait....wear 2 masks for double the protection". Which one do you have the most faith in? 3 different corporations making 3 different vaccines. Which one do you trust the most?
All the faith you placed in getting 2 different vaccines from 2 different vaccine corporations was based upon the simple premise that you have gotten vaccines all your life and you're still alive? Oh wow. You do think in some pretty simplistic terms, don't you?
Anyhoo, if getting your yearly jabs makes you sleep better at night, knock yerself out, live and let live. I'll pass until I have more faith in the "science" of the company Im placing all my trust in. It's hard to fathom that one could be so stricken with tunnel vision as to not seeing that vaccines are composed of way more than just science these days. Politics, money are a part of the game now, no matter whether you like it or not. And I don't like it.
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