Message From Our Alt-Right Members to the “Moderates”

[doodle]

Or maybe a less sensational and more accurate analogy would be you ham sandwich goes from this

ffb25be7566ec7f29507a4a757ad7cb8.jpg (27.48 KiB) Viewed 5753 times

To this

how-about-that-for-take.max-800x600.jpg (80.87 KiB) Viewed 5753 times

And you actually get to enjoy it more because you don't have to worry about the fact that there is a hoard of desperate hungry guys eating poo sandwiches in the ally that want to slit your gluttonous throat.

[doodle]

And you actually get to enjoy it more because you don't have to worry about the fact that there is a hoard of desperate hungry guys eating poo sandwiches in the ally that want to slit your gluttonous throat.

Or maybe there’s no ham at all because the effort required to create enough value for society and be taxed on it just to keep a few slices for yourself means it’s not worth it and now you’re eating old canned ham from before the government demanded you share most of your ham and there’s no new ham made for anyone.

And a few people have old canned ham, and everyone else only has poo.

Yes, and Jeff Bezos would surely quit working if he only made 1 billion a week instead of 2.

Everything isn't a slippery slope into a communist hell hole.

History says that there is a certain level of inequality that will produce a backlash that will make a communist hell hole seem like a disneyland vacation. My guess is that happens sometimes before we start eating shit sandwiches.

Your theories are wonderful, except you completely misunderstand the nature of the animal you are applying them to.

[doodle]

History says that there is a certain level of inequality that will produce a backlash that will make a communist hell hole seem like a disneyland vacation. My guess is that happens sometimes before we start eating shit sandwiches.

Your theories are wonderful, except you completely misunderstand the nature of the animal you are applying them to.

Mob justice? That's your answer on how to create a more just and financially equitable society? Sounds lovely. I think we have reached the point of absurdity.

Would there be a centralized database where I can dig into everyone's finances? Does the vigilante mob hold them down and tattoo “wealthy robber baron” on their forehead? Sounds kind of oppressive to me.

If I'm not mistaken wasn't it you who proposed vigilante justice in place of a police force?

I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying it is what it is. Inequality is a reality that we have to contend with. Your proposal to do nothing works until a certain point...When inequality stretches past that point there historically has always been a backlash.

With a coming AI revolution I think we are going to come up with some creative ideas. You got any?

[Maddy]

I can't say I share the concern for everybody being "equal." So long as I have a reasonably accessible path to a happy life, what do I care whether the guy across the road has 160 acres to my 20, or whether he's able to retire early and I'm not? Life's unfair, and fate has its way of picking its own winners and losers. So as long as my pursuits are not being unreasonably interfered with by someone bent upon using his superior position to thwart me, what's to complain about? When the guy I envy for having so many more advantages than I loses his leg in a logging accident, or his kid gets cancer, the scoreboard starts looking a little different.

That said, I absolutely detest the likes of Jeff Bezos et al. As far as I can tell, he and his cronies are precisely the type who can never be satisfied until everybody else in the game has lost their clothes. However, as I've said before, I don't regard his uniquely powerful status to have been acquired or maintained without the constant support and involvement of government.

So it puzzles me why anybody would reflexively conclude that even more government intervention is the answer to the problem. Hasn't it been proven, over and over again, that people like him are never touched by the very regulations designed by do-gooders to spread the wealth? Didn't a left-leaning member of this forum just recently acknowledge that interventions designed to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor inevitably target the middle class rather than the 1 percent?

What might happen if we actually enforced anti-trust laws? What if government bowed out of the business of supporting corporate monopolies? What if we no longer tolerated the revolving door whereby the same people rotate through Congress, intelligence positions, NGOs, and corporate boards?

[SomeDude]

Theft should be legal as long as you can prove in court, should you need to, that the other guy has more stuff than you. It doesn't even matter how he got it.

That is the lefty proposition, no matter how they cloak it.

I for one think it's a rock solid argument and fully support it.

Also, married guys should have to share their wives with the unmarried and if you have two kidneys one should be removed and put in govt storage in case someone else's aren't working.

[doodle]

I can't say I share the concern for everybody being "equal." So long as I have a reasonably accessible path to a happy life, what do I care whether the guy across the road has 160 acres to my 20, or whether he's able to retire early and I'm not? Life's unfair, and fate has its way of picking its own winners and losers.

I dont care about equal either. That will never happen anyways and it shouldn't. People work differing amounts and have different skills etc. What I'm frustrated with is the injustice of a system where within the same company someone earns 2 billion dollars a week while people working 40hours a week for that same company need food stamps to feed their family. That isnt a natural state of affairs among humans. No historical group would put up with that.

I'm frustrated by the divide between CEO compensation and the average worker. These CEOs are largely managers..they didn't invent anything. They aren't geniuses who have revolutionized our society. I do not think the free market is involved when these CEOs write themselves golden parachutes and massive stock benefit packages while their workers can't afford the basic necessities of life. That strikes me more like a slave master and slave relationship than one based on free market valuation. It's a club of people that sit in each other's boards and rub each other's backs.

And yes, their big money influence over our elected officials is screwing up our democracy.

I'm not anti free market. I'm anti crony capitalism and people in power pushing their weight around because they can. I do not think eliminating government will solve the problem. I do think getting money out of politics will help.

[doodle]

Your history is lacking.

Your average peasant worked far less than your average american today and there were plenty of uprisings and revolts along the way. Plenty of other differences as far as disparity goes. Anyways, maybe you should do some more reading

[doodle]

I will say, if people have a place to go where they can drop out and can set up some kind of decent living situation it would serve as a pressure release valve.

I think slab city outside Los angles is probably a good example of what those type of places might look like...or the Mesa in arizona

I think if you are a true libertarian you have to acknowledge that not everyone should be forced to participate in your economic system. Since no man created the earth, parts of it should be set aside for those wanting to enjoy their natural birthright to just exist in whatever fashion they want to.

Slab city for the uninitiated

https://youtu.be/nSUOGmJZ1OY

[doodle]

Oh and I should mention, I find it interesting that in a place like slab city...the freest place in america..they still have established a government.

I think you would enjoy that video, Tom. I also think maybe because of your housing woes you should consider moving there. It is a libertarian wonderland for the most part. You could also look up Mesa Arizona...same deal...police don't even go in there for the most part. The community takes care of everything

[doodle]

Here is trailer for Life on the Mesa

I listen to the people in these videos and they sound almost exactly like Tom and Techno. I don't know why you guys don't head out there!

https://youtu.be/MXF4Hnp2MLA?list=PLM ... 9zvT_BBVC

[Maddy]

I live in exactly such a situation--in the middle of a forest--but I question whether it will be possible to live as a social dropout much longer. The land use people in my county have bought into the whole Agenda 21 thing and are doing everything they can to herd people out of unpopulated areas and into the "cities" they intend to build out of small towns. Density is their stated objective (never mind the fact that they go into high worble if two people venture to stand within six feet of one another). In the nearest small town, they're moving at breakneck speed to turn the library all-digital, and the banks have conveniently closed their doors to in-person transactions. Finding a simple country doctor who doesn't keep electronic medical records is all but impossible. This year alone I've gone a relatively EMF-free environment to being surrounded by high-tech emitting devices. StarLink is now beaming down on me, and the technocrats who are bent on bringing me 5G have decided that no one will be allowed to be left behind. The "powers that be" threaten, from time to time, to meter my well. I hear rumblings about the end of wood stoves. Low-flying planes are now the norm; lord only knows what they're looking for. All this depresses me greatly but makes me glad that I'm of an age that I probably won't live to see the worst of it.

[pp4me]

Basically I don't have the level of faith that the free market will solve all of humanities problems that some people here do.

I doubt that there is anybody here who actually believes that. Only the strawman in your head does.

[doodle]

Basically I don't have the level of faith that the free market will solve all of humanities problems that some people here do.

I doubt that there is anybody here who actually believes that. Only the strawman in your head does.

I wish it were a strawman in my head. There are many people here actively arguing that the best course of action for our country and the world would be to abolish all government...Tom, Techno, Mark, to name just a few have said they even support privatizing our legal system and police forces.

[SomeDude]

Basically I don't have the level of faith that the free market will solve all of humanities problems that some people here do.

I doubt that there is anybody here who actually believes that. Only the strawman in your head does.

What are humanity's problems? I'm pretty sure there's a product or service out there for practically every individual problem. I'm sure with the government out of the way we'd have even more products at lower prices.

[pp4me]

Basically I don't have the level of faith that the free market will solve all of humanities problems that some people here do.

I doubt that there is anybody here who actually believes that. Only the strawman in your head does.

What are humanity's problems? I'm pretty sure there's a product or service out there for practically every individual problem. I'm sure with the government out of the way we'd have even more products at lower prices.

I'm not actually that concerned with solving humanities problems or any solutions proposed for it. I once believed that Jesus was going to come down from heaven and do that but right now my thinking is that If my neighbor is hungry I would feed him but everything else is beyond my pay grade.

[pp4me]

Basically I don't have the level of faith that the free market will solve all of humanities problems that some people here do.

I doubt that there is anybody here who actually believes that. Only the strawman in your head does.

I wish it were a strawman in my head. There are many people here actively arguing that the best course of action for our country and the world would be to abolish all government...Tom, Techno, Mark, to name just a few have said they even support privatizing our legal system and police forces.

They can answer for themselves whether or not they think you are presenting strawman arguments for what they really believe. My only question for you is what difference does it really make to you what they believe?

[doodle]

Basically I don't have the level of faith that the free market will solve all of humanities problems that some people here do.

I doubt that there is anybody here who actually believes that. Only the strawman in your head does.

What are humanity's problems? I'm pretty sure there's a product or service out there for practically every individual problem. I'm sure with the government out of the way we'd have even more products at lower prices.

The best solution to humanity’s problems is always government. I don’t even care what kind of government, just give me more of it. Whether it’s a government formed by the strongest men with spears, or most violent men with machine guns, or the men most skilled in lying and deceit that can convince people to vote for them.

Clearly the most violent or best liars are the ones in the best position to solve humanities problems. Let’s get more of that, please! My biggest concern is if we go to a 100% centrally planned fully socialism government where no one owns anything.

Because, what if some new problem arises? Bear with me here, folks, we all know if we hit that utopian government-controls-everything paradise, then there won’t be any problems, but what if some black swan event occurs.

We would already have maximum possible government, so how do we solve problems then? Perhaps a leveraged government solution that is 110% government control of everything. I don’t know how that would work conceptually, but I trust government will figure it out when the time comes.

Although probably not necessary, since if once we hit peak government control, a new problem arises, then the government could simply reclassify the definition of the word “problem”. Like how when the government wants to print more money to expand but have some silly mandate to keep inflation below a certain number, then they can just re-define how inflation is calculated and keep on printing.

Money printer go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Tom, I gave you the name of two places where people basically exist outside the scope of any government. The Mesa in Arizona seems more legit though. It appears as if slab city is gentrifying. Apparently there were some land disputes that arose that had people burning each other out and so the locals decided to put a small government in place to deal with these disputes. I'm sure in your case with all your ammunition you would have simply killed anyone who set foot on your land so wouldn't have been an issue for you. But seriously, if government is destroying everything and making everything worse why don't you just move out to one of those areas where you don't have to worry about it? You can live your life in total freedom. They might come looking for you if you start abducting hitchhikers and posting their heads on stakes around your property but short of that it's anything goes.

[doodle]

Basically I don't have the level of faith that the free market will solve all of humanities problems that some people here do.

I doubt that there is anybody here who actually believes that. Only the strawman in your head does.

I wish it were a strawman in my head. There are many people here actively arguing that the best course of action for our country and the world would be to abolish all government...Tom, Techno, Mark, to name just a few have said they even support privatizing our legal system and police forces.

They can answer for themselves whether or not they think you are presenting strawman arguments for what they really believe. My only question for you is what difference does it really make to you what they believe?

Hold up, did you read Tom's opening post from this thread? Who has a problem with who believing what? He basically stated anyone who disagrees with the majority viewpoints here should pack up and leave.

[doodle]

To me your post was more about staking claim to this forum than anything else. You feel that you have right to lay claim to the title of supreme libertarian and anyone who challenges your ideas suddenly gets relegated to the communist authoritarian trash heap. And your ideas, from completely abolishing the government, legalizing chemical weapons for everyday citizens, to privatizing the judicial system and police force etc etc. are very extreme and would not be supported by Harry Browne or most libertarians.

[doodle]

In addition, for being the gatekeeper on a Harry Browne forum you are doing a horrible job of finding freedom in an unfree world. You whine about housing prices constantly or the lack of freedom you have in your daily life but when provided alternatives to work around those issues you do nothing.

[yankees60]

I can't say I share the concern for everybody being "equal." So long as I have a reasonably accessible path to a happy life, what do I care whether the guy across the road has 160 acres to my 20, or whether he's able to retire early and I'm not? Life's unfair, and fate has its way of picking its own winners and losers. So as long as my pursuits are not being unreasonably interfered with by someone bent upon using his superior position to thwart me, what's to complain about? When the guy I envy for having so many more advantages than I loses his leg in a logging accident, or his kid gets cancer, the scoreboard starts looking a little different.

That said, I absolutely detest the likes of Jeff Bezos et al. As far as I can tell, he and his cronies are precisely the type who can never be satisfied until everybody else in the game has lost their clothes. However, as I've said before, I don't regard his uniquely powerful status to have been acquired or maintained without the constant support and involvement of government.

So it puzzles me why anybody would reflexively conclude that even more government intervention is the answer to the problem. Hasn't it been proven, over and over again, that people like him are never touched by the very regulations designed by do-gooders to spread the wealth? Didn't a left-leaning member of this forum just recently acknowledge that interventions designed to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor inevitably target the middle class rather than the 1 percent?

What might happen if we actually enforced anti-trust laws? What if government bowed out of the business of supporting corporate monopolies? What if we no longer tolerated the revolving door whereby the same people rotate through Congress, intelligence positions, NGOs, and corporate boards?

This is where I always have the problem. Yes, what you say may be true AFTER Amazon reached a certain status. But the success of Amazon was NO given.

When Jeff Bezos started Amazon Amazon had NONE of the advantages that you attribute to the government. Actually, it seems like almost everyone here would say he started with all the inherent disadvantages because we have our government the way it is.

Many of us could have started an Amazon at the same time he did.

But he actually did it. He took on tons and tons of risk. He worked incredible hours. Now he is reaping the rewards.

Isn't what I just wrote in the prior paragraph what almost everyone here believes should be the cause and the outcome?

For me Amazon is an incredible business. Thus its owner should be incredibly rewarded. That business is extremely well utilized by me. Spend a lot of money at it and with more and more purchases every year.

Where is the bright line cut off for a business like Amazon when you say enough is enough now some major changes have to be made to it so that it is no longer getting perceived unfair advantages from our government?

I'm an independent politically. I do believe in the free market and capitalist system.

So far I've read two books on Amazon, full of details. They were each far from puff pieces on Amazon. I emerged from reading both of them with nothing but respect for Jeff Bezos.

Rather than being so reviled from seemingly every quarter he should have celebrity status as a capitalist star!

Vinny

[doodle]

In addition, for being the gatekeeper on a Harry Browne forum you are doing a horrible job of finding freedom in an unfree world.

Hows your quest to find freedom in an unfree forum working out?

I'm not the one bemoaning how the government is ruining everything. If I truly felt that way I would surely do whatever was necesary to separate myself from that entity...I gave you the name of two places (and I'm sure there are many others) where you can basically live free of government interference yet somehow they aren't too appealing to you.

As far as me, I don't feel constrained in the way you do so from that standpoint I'd think you'd be further along in the process than me. I'm in a similar situation with regard to housing in that I'm not willing to pay the going rates. I could either whine about it, or do something by buying a piece of land and going at the process of building something myself. I have traveled 10000 miles in the last year after selling everything I owned including three pieces of property in order to do just that. Covid sidetracked things but as soon as winter lifts I'm back on the quest. Taking action at the very least puts some of the control back into your hands....

[doodle]

I can't say I share the concern for everybody being "equal." So long as I have a reasonably accessible path to a happy life, what do I care whether the guy across the road has 160 acres to my 20, or whether he's able to retire early and I'm not? Life's unfair, and fate has its way of picking its own winners and losers. So as long as my pursuits are not being unreasonably interfered with by someone bent upon using his superior position to thwart me, what's to complain about? When the guy I envy for having so many more advantages than I loses his leg in a logging accident, or his kid gets cancer, the scoreboard starts looking a little different.

That said, I absolutely detest the likes of Jeff Bezos et al. As far as I can tell, he and his cronies are precisely the type who can never be satisfied until everybody else in the game has lost their clothes. However, as I've said before, I don't regard his uniquely powerful status to have been acquired or maintained without the constant support and involvement of government.

So it puzzles me why anybody would reflexively conclude that even more government intervention is the answer to the problem. Hasn't it been proven, over and over again, that people like him are never touched by the very regulations designed by do-gooders to spread the wealth? Didn't a left-leaning member of this forum just recently acknowledge that interventions designed to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor inevitably target the middle class rather than the 1 percent?

What might happen if we actually enforced anti-trust laws? What if government bowed out of the business of supporting corporate monopolies? What if we no longer tolerated the revolving door whereby the same people rotate through Congress, intelligence positions, NGOs, and corporate boards?

This is where I always have the problem. Yes, what you say may be true AFTER Amazon reached a certain status. But the success of Amazon was NO given.

When Jeff Bezos started Amazon Amazon had NONE of the advantages that you attribute to the government. Actually, it seems like almost everyone here would say he started with all the inherent disadvantages because we have our government the way it is.

Many of us could have started an Amazon at the same time he did.

But he actually did it. He took on tons and tons of risk. He worked incredible hours. Now he is reaping the rewards.

Isn't what I just wrote in the prior paragraph what almost everyone here believes should be the cause and the outcome?

For me Amazon is an incredible business. Thus its owner should be incredibly rewarded. That business is extremely well utilized by me. Spend a lot of money at it and with more and more purchases every year.

Where is the bright line cut off for a business like Amazon when you say enough is enough now some major changes have to be made to it so that it is no longer getting perceived unfair advantages from our government?

I'm an independent politically. I do believe in the free market and capitalist system.

So far I've read two books on Amazon, full of details. They were each far from puff pieces on Amazon. I emerged from reading both of them with nothing but respect for Jeff Bezos.

Rather than being so reviled from seemingly every quarter he should have celebrity status as a capitalist star!

Vinny

Political right hates him because he own Wapo. He's a popular whipping boy. Trump pays no taxes..he's a genius. Amazon pays no taxes...he's a crony capitalist.

[yankees60]

I can't say I share the concern for everybody being "equal." So long as I have a reasonably accessible path to a happy life, what do I care whether the guy across the road has 160 acres to my 20, or whether he's able to retire early and I'm not? Life's unfair, and fate has its way of picking its own winners and losers. So as long as my pursuits are not being unreasonably interfered with by someone bent upon using his superior position to thwart me, what's to complain about? When the guy I envy for having so many more advantages than I loses his leg in a logging accident, or his kid gets cancer, the scoreboard starts looking a little different.

That said, I absolutely detest the likes of Jeff Bezos et al. As far as I can tell, he and his cronies are precisely the type who can never be satisfied until everybody else in the game has lost their clothes. However, as I've said before, I don't regard his uniquely powerful status to have been acquired or maintained without the constant support and involvement of government.

So it puzzles me why anybody would reflexively conclude that even more government intervention is the answer to the problem. Hasn't it been proven, over and over again, that people like him are never touched by the very regulations designed by do-gooders to spread the wealth? Didn't a left-leaning member of this forum just recently acknowledge that interventions designed to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor inevitably target the middle class rather than the 1 percent?

What might happen if we actually enforced anti-trust laws? What if government bowed out of the business of supporting corporate monopolies? What if we no longer tolerated the revolving door whereby the same people rotate through Congress, intelligence positions, NGOs, and corporate boards?

This is where I always have the problem. Yes, what you say may be true AFTER Amazon reached a certain status. But the success of Amazon was NO given.

When Jeff Bezos started Amazon Amazon had NONE of the advantages that you attribute to the government. Actually, it seems like almost everyone here would say he started with all the inherent disadvantages because we have our government the way it is.

Many of us could have started an Amazon at the same time he did.

But he actually did it. He took on tons and tons of risk. He worked incredible hours. Now he is reaping the rewards.

Isn't what I just wrote in the prior paragraph what almost everyone here believes should be the cause and the outcome?

For me Amazon is an incredible business. Thus its owner should be incredibly rewarded. That business is extremely well utilized by me. Spend a lot of money at it and with more and more purchases every year.

Where is the bright line cut off for a business like Amazon when you say enough is enough now some major changes have to be made to it so that it is no longer getting perceived unfair advantages from our government?

I'm an independent politically. I do believe in the free market and capitalist system.

So far I've read two books on Amazon, full of details. They were each far from puff pieces on Amazon. I emerged from reading both of them with nothing but respect for Jeff Bezos.

Rather than being so reviled from seemingly every quarter he should have celebrity status as a capitalist star!

Vinny

Hmmm. This seems in conflict to Doodle's premise that Bezo's risks and hard work do not entitle him to the fruits of his struggle.

It most certainly does. But it is also in conflict with the opposite political philosophy here --that one only gets super successful if you have all the unfair advantages and support that our wicked government gives to them.

I know that the mega-corporations wield undue and unfair power on the government to set up the rules so it benefits them. Just another case wherein "the rich get richer while the poor get poorer."

I'm in the middle on this one. No unfair advantages for anyone. But if you play by the rules, don't benefit from any unfair advantages obtained somewhat in unethical ways even though legal, then I think those super success people should be admired by the rest of America the same way our celebrities and sports stars are. They should be held up to children, saying to the children, you, too, can possibly achieve that if you work untold hours, take risks that most other people would never take, and get certain breaks along the way.

I fully believe that 99% of the population wants no part of that life that could lead to that possible achievement. Note I said possible. For every Jeff Bezos there were probably 100, 1,000, 1,000, 000 before him who put in the time, risked all, and then ended up with nothing.

Isn't Jeff Bezos a symbol of the ultimate achieving of the American Dream. From reading what many here write I'd have assumed that they'd revere anyone who'd achieved the American Dream to the extent he has. No. instead he's reviled because he MUST have been able to do what he did SOLELY through the efforts of our wicked government.

I'll close by asking why and at what point did out wicked government decide to give him and Amazon the unfair advantages? Why did they not chose to give it to you or me? Or, all the millions of other Jeff Bezos wannabe's in this country?

It's not like we do it like the Russians wherein their athletes are picked and chosen in elementary school and groomed to be their high achievers.

For all of you who are critics of Jeff Bezos I really need for you to tell me at what year our government decided that Jeff Bezos and Amazon were the chosen ones and , that therefore, from henceforth on they are now due all the blessings that our government bestows on these chosen ones. Keep in mind I believe that Amazon started in 1996. So give me that year. Was it 1997? 1999? 2000? When? When? When!!!

Vinny

[doodle]

I can't say I share the concern for everybody being "equal." So long as I have a reasonably accessible path to a happy life, what do I care whether the guy across the road has 160 acres to my 20, or whether he's able to retire early and I'm not? Life's unfair, and fate has its way of picking its own winners and losers. So as long as my pursuits are not being unreasonably interfered with by someone bent upon using his superior position to thwart me, what's to complain about? When the guy I envy for having so many more advantages than I loses his leg in a logging accident, or his kid gets cancer, the scoreboard starts looking a little different.

That said, I absolutely detest the likes of Jeff Bezos et al. As far as I can tell, he and his cronies are precisely the type who can never be satisfied until everybody else in the game has lost their clothes. However, as I've said before, I don't regard his uniquely powerful status to have been acquired or maintained without the constant support and involvement of government.

So it puzzles me why anybody would reflexively conclude that even more government intervention is the answer to the problem. Hasn't it been proven, over and over again, that people like him are never touched by the very regulations designed by do-gooders to spread the wealth? Didn't a left-leaning member of this forum just recently acknowledge that interventions designed to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor inevitably target the middle class rather than the 1 percent?

What might happen if we actually enforced anti-trust laws? What if government bowed out of the business of supporting corporate monopolies? What if we no longer tolerated the revolving door whereby the same people rotate through Congress, intelligence positions, NGOs, and corporate boards?

This is where I always have the problem. Yes, what you say may be true AFTER Amazon reached a certain status. But the success of Amazon was NO given.

When Jeff Bezos started Amazon Amazon had NONE of the advantages that you attribute to the government. Actually, it seems like almost everyone here would say he started with all the inherent disadvantages because we have our government the way it is.

Many of us could have started an Amazon at the same time he did.

But he actually did it. He took on tons and tons of risk. He worked incredible hours. Now he is reaping the rewards.

Isn't what I just wrote in the prior paragraph what almost everyone here believes should be the cause and the outcome?

For me Amazon is an incredible business. Thus its owner should be incredibly rewarded. That business is extremely well utilized by me. Spend a lot of money at it and with more and more purchases every year.

Where is the bright line cut off for a business like Amazon when you say enough is enough now some major changes have to be made to it so that it is no longer getting perceived unfair advantages from our government?

I'm an independent politically. I do believe in the free market and capitalist system.

So far I've read two books on Amazon, full of details. They were each far from puff pieces on Amazon. I emerged from reading both of them with nothing but respect for Jeff Bezos.

Rather than being so reviled from seemingly every quarter he should have celebrity status as a capitalist star!

Vinny

Hmmm. This seems in conflict to Doodle's premise that Bezo's risks and hard work do not entitle him to the fruits of his struggle.

My only issue is that the fruits of his struggle also come from the collective labor and lives of tens of thousands of individuals. Jeff Bezos had a great idea, a great mind, and put in a lot of hard work to make it reality. After that initial idea he harnessed the intelligence and labor power of thousands of individuals and leveraged capital markets, distribution networks and public road systems, public education systems, public court and legal systems to build his company. There is a symbiotic relationship between the idea man and the collective structure that allows a company like that to grow and flourish. I don't think it's right that he makes 2 billion a week while he has fulltime workers living off food stamps while they put themselves in harm's way to make amazon an enormous profit during the lockdowns. I look at amazon as a collective tribe and I find it distasteful that any company would treat it's members that way.

I think this article from the financial times raises some other issues regarding the size of Amazon and how it can leverage that to squash competition.

https://www.ft.com/content/7c291a12-b8 ... 61693c3e7