On Amazon and Jeff Bezos

You're the CEO of one of America's largest & most successful corporations. You are worth nearly 200 billion dollars. You've made it. By any measurement, you're a success.

Wouldn't you be proud to offer ALL employees FULL BENEFITS? Wouldn't you be happy to support a Union for your employees?

Know This About Amazon and Jeff Bezos and Union Organization

Amazon: --World's 4th biggest company --$21 billion a year in profit --Owner Jeff Bezos is worth $184B, up $70B in a year

--Sends workers 5 anti-union messages a day --36,000+ employees are on food stamps and Medicaid --Cost to lift them from poverty? 2% of annual profit --Dan Price @DanPriceSeattle

Examples of How and Why Jeff Bezos Is Now Worth About 200 Billion?

Check these out as just two examples.

Dan Price @DanPriceSeattle Dec 22, 2020 1. A small business began selling camera tripods on Amazon 2. It reached $3.5 million in sales, 0.001% of Amazon's revenue 3. Amazon copied the tripods exactly and sold them as AmazonBasics tripods 4. Amazon banned the tripod company from Amazon And number two-- Dan Price @DanPriceSeattle · Dec 22, 2020 1. A small business began selling camera tripods on Amazon 2. It reached $3.5 million in sales, 0.001% of Amazon's revenue 3. Amazon copied the tripods exactly and sold them as AmazonBasics tripods 4. Amazon banned the tripod company from Amazon These two examples came from articles in the Wall Street Journal and then CNBC, too, to be clear.

What a Fine Company, That Amazon!

Yessirree, Bob! That Amazon! What a fantastic, upstanding company, eh? Just doing great work out there for us all. So what if it's owner, Jeff Bezos is worth somewhere closely around 200 billion dollars! So what if, one day last year, his net worth went UP 13 billion dollars in one day! Forget all that! They're doing great work for us and for their employees both. Why, just look at the latest news!

For starters, this broke today:

Amazon to pay $61.7 million to settle charges it stole driver tips

Amazon Inc. agreed to pay more than $61.7 million to settle allegations it cheated Amazon Flex drivers out of nearly one-third of tips from customers for more than two years. The money paid to the Federal Trade Commission will be used to compensate drivers. The FTC said Amazon in 2015 advertised that a program called Flex would pay drivers $18 to $25 an hour to make deliveries and that they would receive 100% of any tips. But in late 2016 Amazon “secretly reduced its own contribution to drivers’ pay,” according to the FTC complaint.

And Unions? Why, of course with all the money the company and Mr. Bezos are making, they have no problem whatever that Amazon employees have great employment representation! Right??

Amazon battles warehouse union drive with hardball tactics

And with all that money Mr. Bezos makes, why, of course he gives his employees the best, fullest benefits!

Amazon warehouse workers say they struggle to get paid

'Amazon is not taking care of us': Warehouse workers say they're struggling to get paid despite sick leave policy

And working conditions for the employees?? Why, don't even ask! They're the best! The best!

Amazon workers reveal brutal working conditions

Amazon faces reports of unsafe working conditions

Amazon’s poor treatment of workers is catching up to it

‘I'm not a robot’: Amazon workers condemn unsafe, grueling conditions at warehouse

Amazon Working Conditions: Urinating in Trash Cans, Shamed to Work Injured, List of Employee Complaints

SO WHAT if they also pay ZERO TAXES!

Amazon paid no federal taxes on $11.2 billion in profits

I'm just SO VERY GLAD we've gotten FAR BEYOND the sweat shops and robber barons of 100 years ago, aren't you? Further proof, of course, that, as the Republicans and Right Wingers and Libertarians say, we no way need government regulations over business and industry! Why, everything's working just as it ought! To EVERYONE'S BENEFIT!

So, sure! That Amazon! What a great, great company! So who cares if Mr. Bezos is a multi- multi-billionaire 200 times over! Everything is great at that company!

Other Amazon news breaking this week:

Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon CEO

I guess maybe 200 billion dollars is "enough"??

Amazon unveils 'Helix' tower for new $2.5B headquarters

With all the money they're making and the taxes they're not paying, they had to do SOMETHING with all that money! Right??

Maybe We Don't Want That Amazon Headquarters Anyway

For a different viewpoint on that Amazon headquarters:

Amazon's New Headquarters 

Should Be in Hell

"Amazon is one of America’s largest and most successful corporations. It is worth nearly $500 billion. Its stock is booming. Its CEO is one of the world’s richest men. It has the wherewithal, in other words, to do whatever it wants. If Amazon wanted to purchase five square blocks of midtown Manhattan tomorrow and build skyscrapers on it, it could, just by writing a check. More to the point, if Amazon wanted to help revitalize an American city by investing $5 billion in it to build a new headquarters there, bringing 50,000 new jobs to town, it could. Just by writing a check.

Instead, Amazon is holding a multinational audition, asking for cities to submit proposals to win the exciting opportunity to host tens of thousands of tech (people). Amazon wants to know that cities have an educated work force and good transportation networks, sure, but they don’t need the cities themselves to tell them that. What they are asking cities to submit are economic incentives. They are asking for tax breaks. They are in essence conducting a giant beauty pageant in which desperate municipal governments attempt to offer them the most lucrative possible package of public resources. This is not unlike a rich man standing up in the midst of a crowd of beggars and yelling, “Who will massage my feet for the lowest price?”

Do we really want to give away possible supporting tax money for our schools and infrastructure?

Can we afford that?

It's as I said a long time ago and have said since, our city, county and state governments need to stop letting themselves be used like this. They need to stop allowing themselves to be manipulated to give the lowest and best tax package, just to land possible new business and companies to come into their jurisdictions.

They won't stop but they should.

On Donald Trump

What Does Rex Sinquefield Gain By Messing With Kansas City?

So once again, rich, billionaire, St. Louisan Rex Sinquefield tries yet one more time to have Kansas Cititans vote on and, for him, hopefully do away with our 1% city tax.

Here's a guy who's from St. Louis, for pity's sake and a billionaire but he wants to mess with this city across the state, a city he doesn't even live in---and he's already wealthy---yet he has to mess with Kansas City and Kansas Citians and their taxes.

What is his gain in this?

Why doesn't he leave us alone? Why doesn't he leave us all alone?

Is this not one of the best, if not the best example of a wealthy person trying to have his way with the rest of the state, with the middle-, lower- and working-classes, if not the rest of the nation?

Trying to buy the state's next governor  with Catherine Hanaway and the next Lt. Governor as he's been trying to do, I understand. It's still  wrong and deeply so but that I understand.

What he gets,real or imagined, from draining Kansas City's tax coffers, thatI don't get.

Quote of the day II--Billionaire for tax cuts

Warren Buffett proposed a further tax cut for the middle class, upper middle class and lower middle class -- essentially, everyone except the wealthy -- in an interview Tuesday with CNN Money's Poppy Harlow, at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, DC

The billionaire investor, who, with a roughly $45 billion net worth, is the country's second richest person (behind Bill Gates), also said the government should raise taxes on the richest 2 percent of the country. That particular message was nothing new: He's been saying for years that the rich need to bear a greater share of the tax burden. Buffett reiterated Tuesday that he has the lowest tax rate of anybody in his Omaha office, even despite the fact that he doesn't have a tax shelter. But his tax cut proposal was new.
"I think maybe we should cut taxes for the middle class," he said. "Upper middle class [and] lower middle class."
Taxing the rich, he said, is the best way for the government to boost its income.

"The question is, Do we get more money from the person that's gonna serve me lunch today, or do we get it from me? I think we should get it from me," he said.

I couldn't agree more, Mr. Buffet.

Link to the original post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/05/warren-buffett-tax-cuts_n_751503.html

For anyone who thinks we can send 12 million Mexicans back, read on

This is what I've said all along to friends or anyone who thinks we--the US--can really send 11 or 12 million "illegal aliens" back to Mexico, check out Rupert Murdoch's quote to Congress yesterday: Billionaire Rupert Murdoch, whose media empire includes the conservative cable channel Fox News, made the case to Congress Thursday that a broad immigration overhaul – with a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants – is critical to “strengthening America’s economy.” His testimony before a House Judiciary Committee immigration panel came as Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Patrick Leahy of Vermont introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes a path to legalization, a temporary worker program, workplace and border enforcement measures and the DREAM Act, which failed in the Senate last week. Murdoch, who immigrated to the United States from Australia, told the committee that he supports sealing the U.S. borders to future illegal immigrants but creating a path to citizenship for responsible, law-abiding immigrants already living in the United States. Here's the quote: “It is nonsense to talk of expelling 12 million people,” Murdoch said. “Not only is it impractical, it is cost prohibitive.” Think about it. Logistically, realistically, it's virtually impossible to even locate and round up, let alone send back this many people, even if it is to next door neighbor Mexico. It not only isn't going to happen, it just can't happen. So let's get over it and get on with immigration reform, figure out some way to naturalize these people and then make a system of some kind for any others in Mexico who want to come to the States. If that is to be a tough system then, going into the future, fine, I guess, but that's the only way this is going to happen. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42944.html#ixzz1121CqjxZ