The wealth is not sitting there in a big cash pot, it is tied up in the business in the form of assets, future growth (investment in the business), and shares. His actual cash wealth, whilst enormous, would make very little difference if distributed amongst the 1M or so employees. Anyway, this is now derailing a thread about something much more important.
Sure, let's move on...but Amazon's market cap typically hovers around $1 trillion, significantly more than Bezos' personal wealth of just over $117 billion. And if only cash counts I'll happily unburden anyone of millions in assets and shares.
He does have sufficient personal cash to finance an entire rocket development program, at a self proclaimed "$1 billion per year", that has yet to get any payload to orbit (or construct a pad, or assemble a completed rocket other than a chunky sounding rocket). With Amazon's ~800k global employees that could mean Bezos' hobby project alone could give everyone a $1250 annual pay rise (for those on the poverty line a significant bump).
There is a catch there, I think you can see. UBI isn't an alternative to capitalism. It it just saying that if you work you are going to get taxed more to provide for those who can't work or don't want to. EDIT: But yes I'd like to move on too.
I didn't say it was an alternative to capitalism; I said it was an alternative to being forced to work in order to afford the basics required for life, i.e. shelter and food - which was the point of your post to which I was replying (and quoting.)
Anyone think the press seems to miss the point somehow? Hours spent asking to what extend Rabb is "standing in" for the PM and will he be "making all the decisions in the end". "Does he have the power to hire and fire?" , presumably meaning cabinet ministers, got asked. His answer that the cabinet will make decisions by consensus is ignored each time. The point is that when the PM is, hopefully temporarily, incapacited, then it's natural for the cabinet to work through consensus more than ever, rather than leaving it up to one person. And why would that be a bad thing anyway? I think there are bigger issues that trying to bang on about the difference between deputising and standing in. But somehow it's one of those things that gets political journalists excited and the rest of the county wonders why it is so important to them.
Is this how we're doing threads now? Take 'em off topic then try to get the last word in with a "let's move on" addendum? Hmm. But I digress; I'd love to move back towards the thread topic. (Am I doing it right?)
I perhaps misphrased. I should have said "I may reply at another time, perhaps" I was leaving you the last word, if you read back. And, no, I'm not sure I brought up Jeff Bezos in the first place.
I think that's how it should be run, we don't have a President afterall. However, I think it should be known who it is who now has their finger on the nuke button.
Maybe not - I admit, I only jumped in halfway through the digression. And to *actually* bring things back on topic: what do we think to projections the UK might be worst-hit by all this?
The entire discussion is relevant IMO, I don't think we went off-topic at all. I had a whole post written out about why, but no one reads that ****.
Spoiler: I have good news and bad news. The good news is that nobody within the cabinet has ever had command authority over the UK's nuclear weapons. Each submarine's captain is given sealed orders at the start of a voyage that he is expected to open and act upon on his own discretion. The bad news is that is the case because flight time for a Russian ICBM from Russia to the UK is less than 30 minutes, if it's launched by a submarine in the Atlantic or Arctic Ocean it's less than 20 minutes. Even with the longest possible warning the cabinet and the admiralty would be dead and gone long before any orders to return fire could be given, along with the rest of us. Sleep well! I sincerely hope that is wrong. But since I am about to apply for a 3 month unpaid layoff from work I'm not overly optimistic either.
Probably because the press have actually seen members of said cabinet in the past, and have a similar opinion of them working through their Chronic Backstabbing Syndrome and coming to a swift and effective working consensus as the rest of us: pull the other one, it's got bells on.
Starting to really wonder if I already had this. Not that I am about to go dancing in the street, but I had a peculiar cold back in mid to late January. I didn't have a flu jab last year (just bad timing and the doc's was very busy) so I had a cold before Christmas. Then in mid to late January I had something odd. I clearly remember that for three days I couldn't taste anything at all. I remember my mother saying on the phone "What are you having for dinner?" and replying "Doesn't matter, can't effing taste it any way". I also then got what I thought was a chest infection, which was really strange. Strange because since ditching smoking for vaping 8 years ago I have not had a single cough or chest complaint. However, this bugger was consistent. I remember thinking maybe vaping had now done enough damage to my lungs (if it does) that I was now going to start getting chest infections again every winter. Then it went away and I felt much better for two days, then WHAM, back to feeling crap for another week. Coughing too, which was something I had actually forgotten about. I'm not saying I had it of course, it could have been anything, but oddly about a week later I got in a taxi (I always ride up front due to light sickness) and the guy in there was as sick as a dog. And I remember thinking "Oh effing great, here we go again !" but nothing. The taxi firm I use is right outside the local train station, which brings in all of the visitors to Butlins, nearly all of them from London BTW so we're no strangers to coughs and colds down here. That said no information exists yet that you can't get it again, and apparently the virus is actually worse in people with better immune systems because it can cause "panic" among the white cells. I thought it was odd that a guy who ran a marathon nearly died of it.
