Bezos would never be able to immediately realise that amount of assets in to useful cash. So saying no human deserves this amount of wealth is kind of already fulfilled? He may have 2 or 3 billion as cash maybe.
I agree to an extent with this view, though the reality is complicated.
The wealth of the ultra-wealthy doesn't exist in bank accounts or vaults of gold, but in assets, and largely assets which have appreciated. The $13 billion dollar single-day appreciation in Bezos's wealth wasn't from someone cutting him a check, but as a result of an increase in the value of his holdings (largely Amazon, Inc., stock).
And liquidating those holdings would not result in receiving the full closing-bell price for that day --- a movement the size of Bezos's on the market would itself influence the price. (A very similar situation exists for other novel assets, notably cryptocurrencies, whose "market value" is something of a polite fiction.)
At the same time ...
... the ultra-wealthy can excercise their wealth without liquidating or spending it, largely by using it as collateral against loans or for investments in other areas. At sufficient scale, the mere threat of making a move in some direction (investing in an industry or market or backing a politician, party, or legislative initiative).
In both instances, the key point is that money doesn't behave at these scales as most people reading this are given to understand. Much as with relativistic physics and quantum mechanics, our quotidian experiences don't give us the proper intuition for these phenomena.
I'm insanely poor by these standards but wealthfront will front me hard cash using my account as collateral with one click i think up to 30%. Super cheap interest rate.
Bezos has way more favorable banking. Even if he was 'only' worth $10-15 billion I bet he could get 2-3 billion in hard cash overnight.
He might not hold a lot of cash, but he doesn't need to he can get it immediately without selling.
There are many, many ways that wealth is realized without spending it. Once you get past a few hundred million you literally cannot spend the money as fast as it comes in.
These billionaires aren't amassing wealth to spend it on things, they're gathering it for power, leverage, status, prestige, legacy reasons etc, and using it to influence and control the world to further their own agenda.
In Bezos's case, he built a company that literally didn't even exist 27 years ago. It's gotten so huge, because globalization has gotten so effective. That's true of all tech companies: they benefit disproportionately from globalization and network effects.
As far as what to do about it? The only solution could be to break up Amazon, Google, Apple, etc. Taxation is not it. The Federal government and the Fed controls the money printer and influences how high these stock valuations are getting. They're a large part of the problem.
We can't print trillions of dollars without side effects in supply, demand and price mechanics. In this case, dollars are chasing productive growth assets as yields in bonds hit the floor and go under zero in some countries.
The growth in inequality correlates with the growth in the national debt, and monetary supply growth.
At this point I think there must be a propaganda campaign to convince people down this line of thinking. Bezos could realistically liquidate the majority of his wealth, though obviously not all at once. Look at how much Gates has liquidated.
"Hmm this information goes against my world view, and might threaten this ego I've built up over time based on finding a way of thinking I'm right about everything. Must be disinformation."
One thing I can say in my defense is that I’d absolutely love to be wrong. I’d love to believe this will all be over soon with (0 covid?) and then they give us back everything they’ve taken and we’re back to normal.
The side insisting not to take the pandemic at face value has no institutional power, in a sense no ego to lose. With no institutional power, they are always held to account.
The corporate media, pharmaceutical companies, almost all officials, social media companies, universities, police forces all insist people unquestioningly accept their viewpoint. Their "ego" is built on years of solidifying their position of authority. With all institutional power, they are not held to account. If they were to be held to account, their house of cards tumbles.
Lying to the public to maintain power, keeps their hands on the government purse.
Loss of trust in institutions.
Loss of sense of prestige in the traditional tracks, they make up for it by becoming authoritarian to maintain sense of utility.
This has been apparent in the US. Our govt tells us small lies for the greater good - early in the pandemic masks weren’t needed - better to tell them they didn’t work so there were enough for healthcare workers.
Works great until the situation changes and you need people to wear masks. Not only do people question why things have changed, they start to ask what else you’re lying about for “the greater good”.
No, because with mathematical proof you can realistically go through the derivations to approve/refute them. It is a short hand referencing something which can be disproven, therefore not an appeal to authority.
Using "experts" here IS an appeal to authority. Bias is at play here in a way that it is not in mathematical proofs. "Experts" is used here to provide cognitive ease to the reader, as a way of encouraging them not to examine deeper.
The polls were off by miles, but in the other direction from the alleged fraud; Democratic candidates received fewer votes and Republican candidates more than would have been predicted by polls.
There have, however, been very few claims of fraud benefiting Republican candidates, because this is mostly explained by high turnout by Republican voters due to strong personal support for Trump in a segment of the party that historically has low turnout. This is illustrated by improved performance by Democrats in runoff elections where Trump was no longer on the ballot.
If, for example, out of blue they declare there is a water pipe burst and rush everyone out, yet a few people remain and bring in fake/doctored ballots, that should prove that votes weren't being counted properly.
>If, for example, out of blue they declare there is a water pipe burst and rush everyone out, yet a few people remain and bring in fake/doctored ballots, that should prove that votes weren't being counted properly.
Ah yes, one of the numerous and thoroughly debunked Trump camp conspiracy theories about the election. Are you going to bring up missing suitcases full of ballots or sharpies as well?
If you actually look at the evidence, you will realise it is not debunked. If youtube hasn't pulled the video, they go through the evidence in a hearing in front of the Georgia State Legislature.
Many of them originally doubt the evidence, believing it to be den=bunked as reported in the media. After seeing the evidence, they are appalled at the deceit of the election officials.
The power structures that be wish to ignore it, but like like Galileo being confident in his findings against a biased establishment Catholic Church, the truth will come out.
If "YouTube hasn't pulled the video", I should imagine you'll have no problem finding and linking the purportedly groundbreaking evidence you're claiming exists. Otherwise, Occams razor slices your argument to ribbons.
Well youtube's algorithm made these hard to find, maybe youtube only promote videos turfed by BigTech bots
Long videos, but as you can see has been watched by many. Bit describing the "pipe burst" starts at 13:50 of the 2nd link. But there is so much more evidence here than just that once instance.
Nothing to do with Israel's recent creation, many states have been created recently without them being targeted by neighbours for mass destruction and genocide.
What makes it strange is sense of normalcy people (sorry, I mean racists) have about a sense of white / Islamic supremacy over Jews, that makes them think it's ok to say things like 'we will wipe every Jew off the face of the planet' etc.
Bezos would never be able to immediately realise that amount of assets in to useful cash. So saying no human deserves this amount of wealth is kind of already fulfilled? He may have 2 or 3 billion as cash maybe.