re: Why do ppl hate billionaires?

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2. I absolutely don't like the fact that Amazon is worth what it is, but still has employees receiving government assistance. I knowingly say that without a thought out solution, but it doesn't seem right.

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There was about a 20 year period in this country when there was an unwritten social contract between the ultra-wealthy CEO's and working class. A lot of it was built upon the goodwill of winning WW2 and recognizing the destruction in Europe that provided an opportunity to become a manufacturing giant in the globe. CEO pay was modest, and entry level factory workers could earn enough to buy a home and allow the wife to stay home and raise the family.

That started breaking down in the 70's, and was accelerated in the 80's, and hasn't really abated since then. A lot of cultural and political circumstances contributed to that break down. While I'm not entirely in favor of government passing laws to try and get back to something close to that, the wealth disparity in this country is pretty appalling.

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THE COST OF ELIMINATING TRACHOMA IS ESTIMATED AT $1 BILLION (£762M).... As many as 200 million people in developing countries are at risk of blindness caused by trachoma and 3.6 million are in need of surgery to prevent them losing their eyesight as a result of contracting the bacterial disease, which is treatable with antibiotics. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates it will cost $1 billion (£710m) to wipe out trachoma by 2020.

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THE COST OF ERADICATING POLIO IS ESTIMATED AT $1.5 BILLION (£1.1BN)... Polio is close to being eradicated with 99.9% fewer cases these days compared to 30 years ago, but the debilitating disease, which can cause paralysis and limb deformities, is still endemic in three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), a relatively modest $1.5 billion (£1.07bn) is all that is needed to obliterate the disease.

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THE COST OF ERADICATING MALARIA IS ESTIMATED AT $8.5 BILLION (£6.5BN)... Almost half the population of the world is at risk of malaria, and while the mosquito-borne disease has been eradicated from many countries, including six since 2000, it is still prevalent in a number of tropical areas, and continues to kill hundreds of thousands of people a year. Researchers at Bentley University in the US believe it would cost $8.5 billion (£6.05bn) to wipe out the disease.

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A whole lot of "estimates." So, you chose where his charitable contributions go? He may feel there are more pressing areas to contribute to. Unless someone has a complete knowledge of where his money goes, they really are judging foolishly.

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CEO pay was modest, and entry level factory workers could earn enough to buy a home and allow the wife to stay home and raise the family.

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You could buy a house and let the wife stay home it you lived in a 1200 sq ft house with one car per household without massage seats and built in GPS. As our quality of life improves (drastically), “in-proportionally” then do improve the lives/wealth of those who actually come up with the improvements.

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nobody with any sense begrudges bezos or anyone else for their success. Many people (rightly) begrudge him for not trying to help people with that wealth.

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LINK

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We are spending more than $700 million to give more than 100,000 Amazon employees access to training programs in fields such as healthcare, transportation, machine learning, and cloud computing. That program is called Career Choice, and we pay 95% of tuition and fees toward a certificate or diploma for in-demand, high-paying fields, regardless of whether it’s relevant to a career at Amazon.

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Amazon has invested more than $270 billion in the U.S. over the last decade. Beyond our own workforce, Amazon’s investments have created nearly 700,000 indirect jobs in fields like construction, building services, and hospitality. Our hiring and investments have brought much-needed jobs and added hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity to areas like Fall River, Massachusetts, California’s Inland Empire, and Rust Belt states like Ohio. During the COVID-19 crisis, we hired an additional 175,000 employees,

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There are now 1.7 million small and medium-sized businesses around the world selling in Amazon’s stores. More than 200,000 entrepreneurs worldwide surpassed $100,000 in sales in our stores in 2019. On top of that, we estimate that third-party businesses selling in Amazon’s stores have created over 2.2 million new jobs around the world.

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More than 80% of Amazon shares are owned by outsiders, and over the last 26 years—starting from zero—we’ve created more than $1 trillion of wealth for those outside shareholders. Who are those shareowners? They are pension funds: fire, police, and school teacher pension funds. Others are 401(k)s—mutual funds that own pieces of Amazon. University endowments, too, and the list goes on. Many people will retire better because of the wealth we’ve created for so many, and we’re enormously proud of this.

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Yeah we gotta put a stop to this!!

Everyone wants to say “Bezos doesn’t deserve it”, ok, you go create $1 Trillion in wealth and get back to us.

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Namely affect and change policy, law to directly benefit them.

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Then your beef is with government not “the rich”. You’ve made a great argument why government shouldn’t be such a strong force in our lives—it’s too easily corruptible.

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Those people are actively shaping our government for their benefit which I have a problem with. Government is suppose to serve its' constituents not the few, wealthy elite who can buy a senator

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The fallacy here is that you don’t really have a problem with concentrated power. A government that can take away wealth of select people—by definition has more power than the victims of that seizure. As far as being “accountable to the people” Congress isn’t. Have a look at incumbent reelection, and how many people constantly bemoaning that Trump is a tyrant.

Our federal government takes almost $3Trillion dollars from its citizens, all by threat... Bezos entire wealth is chump change compared to that.

Just 535 people get to say how that money (~$6 Trillion this year) is spent. And they have jails and a military.

Saying Bezos has too much power seems.... misplaced.

If people are being honest, it’s jealousy.

If not then it’s vanity

But muh tax breaks for headquarters and muh no net income to tax

THEY HATE US CUZ THEY AIN'T US!

(spoken like a non billionaire so that you will understand)

Some people will say that money hoarding is bad for the economy. That much money can’t be spent, so it is removed from the economy and held privately making it almost dead money. The people who accumulate the least amount of wealth are what drives an economy.