Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man In Modern History, Topping $150 Billion (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Jeff Bezos is the richest person in modern history. The Amazon founder's net worth broke $150 billion in New York on Monday morning, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That's about $55 billion more than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the world's second-richest person. Bezos, 54, has now topped Gates in inflation-adjusted terms. The $100 billion mark that Gates hit briefly in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom would be worth about $149 billion in today's dollars. That makes the Amazon chief executive officer richer than anyone else on earth since at least 1982, when Forbes published its inaugural wealth ranking. Bezos crossed the threshold just as Amazon prepares to kick off its 36-hour summer sales event, Prime Day. The company's share price was $1,825.73 at 11:10 a.m. in New York, extending its 2018 gain to 56 percent and giving Bezos a $150.8 billion fortune. A little more than a week ago, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg overtook Warren Buffett to become the world's third-richest person.

Comments

Too much?

[Anonymous Coward]

When is enough money enough money? I ponder...

Re:Too much?

[geekmux]

When is enough money enough money? I ponder...

If you're pondering this, you're wasting your time. The disease of Obscene Greed has proven to be limitless, and we'll soon be counting the world's trillionaires.

Re:Too much?

[OrangeTide]

That's right. he should give all his money to every man, woman, and child in the US. Cut us a one time check for $460, and it will surely change our lives.

Re:Too much?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's right. he should give all his money to every man, woman, and child in the US. Cut us a one time check for $460, and it will surely change our lives.

Actually for quite a few people, it would.

That's a few months of food for a family. That's a couple of months student loan payments. It's a medical bill or a co-pay. It's a dentist visit.

It's money to escape from one's dreary meaningless job and life of toil.

How many jets, yachts, houses, or real estate does he really need?

We need to understand something, gains from capital do NOT require "hard work". Capital breeds like cockroaches. This delusional myth that "if you work hard then you will be successful" is nonsense. "get an education and work hard" is another bullshit myth.

Bezos can sit back, be a drunk and he'll get richer faster than anyone who "works hard".

Re:Too much?

[lgw]

The disease of Obscene Greed has proven to be limitless

According to the required federal reporting on CEo compensation, Bezos was paid $80k in 2017 (previously he had been making the Amazon salary cap of $176k). He refused the boards offer of additional stock. I'm pretty sure that's not what limitless greed looks like.

His wealth is all from stock he got when Amazon went public, that he's still holding on to. Seems reasonable to me that someone who starts a company in his garage and eventually takes it public gets some chunk of stock when that happens. Is he somehow evil because the company was quite successful in the years that followed?

Re:Too much?

[AmiMoJo]

Yes. Not because of the stock, because he built Amazon by abusing his employees with shit conditions and wages.

And if you thought the Microsoft tax was bad, check out the Amazon marketplace tax.

Re:Too much?

[geekmux]

...Seems reasonable to me that someone who starts a company in his garage and eventually takes it public gets some chunk of stock when that happens. Is he somehow evil because the company was quite successful in the years that followed?

I never said he was evil. I haven't worked for him. I merely said he is afflicted with the same disease that many others are afflicted with. Could he find someone qualified to run his business? Certainly. Will he? No, because he's also a Control freak. Even with thousands of employees, he doesn't trust any of them at the helm.

Most people define success as growing a business large enough to the point where they can just enjoy life while work is delegated, not become imprisoned by their own creation. That's just sad, and is exactly what I'm talking about when I define Greed as a disease.

Re:Too much?

[geekmux]

The disease of Obscene Greed has proven to be limitless, and we'll soon be counting the world's trillionaires.

The disease of Obscene Envy is equally boundless it seems.

Being a control freak imprisoned by your own creation, unable to go out in public without armed escort and incapable of retiring to enjoy life? Hated by thousands, including your own abused employees? Known for getting rich by undercutting every middle man and wiping out hundreds of competing businesses?

Yeah, fuck that. I'll take my average life (and Freedoms) any day. No envy here.

Telling Seattle to GFY paid off handsomely

[Anonymous Coward]

With a few more years of stagnant employee wages and no corporate tax we can get him to $200 billion in no time.

Interesting how when he makes $150 billion, it's because he deserves it. When i make $150,000 it's because IT salaries are too high and we need more visas.

$50000

[110010001000]

I thought my $50,000 I make working in IT in Silicon Valley was a lot. I can't even imagine $150,000,000,000!

Re:$50000

[Bryansix]

Either you are really good at trolling or you are the most underpaid IT employee in California.

Re:$50000

[serviscope_minor]

he says this every second thread. He's mediocre at trolling at best. And unemployed.

Re:$50000

[Rockoon]

Whether or not he is underpaid depends on the particulars. He may still be grossly overpaid.

Is he still driving his Honda Accord?

[grungeman]

I do not know too much about Jeff Bezos, but this scene from 1999, where he explains why he is driving a Honda Accord despite being a billionaire, may explain why he is not just your average billionaire, but the richest man on earth.

https://youtu.be/3VUGj34jTqY?t...

Vote me down, but somehow I think he is a great guy.

Re:Is he still driving his Honda Accord?

[grungeman]

Does he? What is known about his today's lifestyle.

Re:Is he still driving his Honda Accord?

[Anonymous Coward]

I do not know too much about Jeff Bezos, but this scene from 1999, where he explains why he is driving a Honda Accord...

(Bezos) "This is a perfectly good car."

Uh, common sense isn't exclusive to obscenely rich people.

...despite being a billionaire, may explain why he is not just your average billionaire, but the richest man on earth.

He got rich because he had a decent idea and got lucky. Despite intelligence or great ideas, most people don't realize just how much timing and pure luck has to do with great success. Had he tried to launch his company in 2001 after the dot-bomb hit, he may have gone down with many other digital ships.

Re:Is he still driving his Honda Accord?

[AmiMoJo]

He has more money than he knows what to do with while his staff don't get a living wage. Conditions in Amazon warehouse are Dickensian.

That's what we know about Jeff Bezos.

Re:Is he still driving his Honda Accord?

[LynnwoodRooster]

Have you ever worked - or even been in - a warehouse? UPS, Krogers, Walmart, Home Depot - warehouses are not nice places, and since it takes a 3rd grade education to work in a warehouse, you can find plenty of people to work there for low wages. Amazon is really no different than your local grocery store (living on 2-3% profit); they just store and ship electronics for other people, rather than grapes and eggs. Revenue is higher, but the model is the same.

Re:Is he still driving his Honda Accord?

[Trogre]

Pretty sure they were selling books before they were selling clouds.

All this money

[DaMattster]

And he still pays his warehouse workers a shit wage. He's a fucking asshole.

Re:$150 B?

[Opportunist]

Tax the rich? What are you, a commie?

Re:If I had that much money

[olsmeister]

You saw what happened on Easter Island when they tried this, right?

If I had that much money

[Okian Warrior]

I'd buy everyone on Earth a beer. Well, if they were of age. And not recovering alcoholics. And didn't vote for Trump. Screw it, this is too hard.

I'd buy a bunch of Senators and institute a one night Purge just like the movie.

If I had that money I'd open up 150,000 index funds with $1 million each, and then hold a lottery.

Lottery winners would be entitled to the annual profit from the index fund, up to a maximum of $50,000. Assuming the market goes up on average, this would be enough to keep the fund going in perpetuity. (Averaged over 20 years, the market is actually a good investment and the funds would accrue value faster than inflation. On average.)

This would remove 150,000 people from the US workforce, making wages go up for the rest of us.

Over 20 years, the extra value could be used to fund more lotteries.

It would also start us on the path to UBI.

Re:If I had that much money

[deKernel]

1) You do realize that your magical funding was actually derived from the evil system you are trying to say is somehow awful.

2) I really wish he would just to prove to fools like you that it would only take a few years before your magical island is a trash-heap.

The shear lack of understanding of the human condition amazes me sometimes.

Re:Stingy? [Re:All this money]

[tlhIngan]

While perhaps technically true, it's a slap to the face of the main content creators. In my opinion, such is poor for morale and could hurt profitability. They busted their butts trying to win a well-publicized market battle, finally won, and got NONE of the spoils of war; the General saying victory was "inevitable".

Well, they got to keep their jobs. If they were the #2 paper, they'd be walking the unemployment line. So they "win" in a way.

But yes, you don't get rich by spending your money, so being completely rich and treating people like crap makes perfect sense. It's why class wars are easy cannon fodder for voters.

Re:The rise of Amazon & the decline of retails

[lgw]

This means more retails shops like Sears/ToysRUs will close down, I am pretty sure this affects retail real estate all over the country. So literally hundred of thousands of people will lose their jobs and there is a cascading effect.

Amazon accounts for around 5% of retail, smaller than WalMart, They're the big dog in online retail, (when they can keep their site up), but they're far from the reason broken businesses like Sears are failing.

Quadrillionare Qunitillionare

[TiggertheMad]

Well stated.More over he does not have 150 billon to play with. Being that he wants to maintain (rigid) control over his company, he cannot sell most of his stock without risking losing that power. Further, that valuation is all just paper.Until he liquidates his position, his valuation will go up and down and follow the stock price. If Amazon stock tanks tomorrow, he is going to be quite a bit less rich. Finally, if / when he sells, dumping that much stock will lower the price, so he is going to have to take a long time to sell off, or accept that he isn't going to get 'full value' for his options. He could probably tank the price by himself just by putting all his stock on the market all at once.

That doesn't mean that he still isn't a rich bitch, though.Given that he has a strong track record in building companies, he could probably get a couple of hundred billion loaned to him by banks with his stock as collateral.If he wanted a 'Trump style' paper empire, he could buy many, many big companies with leveraged collateral, and pay back the interest with profits.He could become the worlds first trillionaire if he stopped fucking around with Amazon, and really pursued the goal.

Of course, who cares? At a certain point, its just numbers in a computer. He'll still be dead of cancer or a bad ticker in 50 years, and he cannot drink any more beer that you or I can in a single day. I kinda feel bad for him. He cannot go anywhere without an armed security escort. He will always have a huge number of people who dislike him, for no other reason than he has stupid piles of cash. In a way, hes trapped by his own success.

Re:Quadrillionare Qunitillionare

[Anonymous Coward]

"he cannot drink any more beer that you or I can in a single day"

I'm going to have to disagree with that.

I bumped into Jeff on a night out in Bangkok. The cunt was already wasted. After a discussion of the merits of Prime Day, we started doing Jagermeisters, one after another, after another. The fucker Would. Not. Go. Down.

I got the barkeep to open up some absinthe, in a desperate bid to slow the guy down, but he was like an elephant. He was downing those flaming shots of absinthe quick as a cheetah on crack.

He turned around with a big shit-eating grin on his face, and said the words I would never forget :"Your turn, motherfucker"

I took one shot of absinthe, and projectile vomited all over a nearby ladyboy, who proceeded to kick the shit out of me.

Although this is only anecdotal evidence, it is my opinion that Jeff Bezos CAN drink more beer than you or I - far more.

Re: $150 B?

[datavirtue]

He would not pay tax on money used to prop up another business. Jesus.

CEOs avoid pay in cash to skip out on taxes

[rsilvergun]

At Jeff's level the scam is very simple. He's allowed to borrow money from banks at negative interest rates (well, below the rate he could just loan it back out for anyway). This is how the top 1% avoid paying taxes. They've taken control of the banking system and use it to hide the enormous amounts of wealthy they've claimed on the backs of you and me.

Jeff built his fortune on the backs of guys like this. Amazon's enormous worth is predicated on the assumption by the investors that he's going to do what he did to that guy to everybody while jacking up the prices once he runs everybody out of business. If we're going to do something about a future where we all work until we have a stroke now's the time.