TotallyOz Posted November 25, 2017 Posted November 25, 2017 Jeff Bezos just passed the 100 Billion dollar mark thanks to good reports from Black Friday. In one day, his net worth increased 2.8 billion. Must be nice. I am an avid Amazon fan. How many others use this on a regular basis? Tomcal 1 Quote
Members tassojunior Posted November 25, 2017 Members Posted November 25, 2017 He has a $40million house down the street from me (actually two he combined). I don't think he's ever been there. TotallyOz and MsAnn 2 Quote
Tomcal Posted November 25, 2017 Posted November 25, 2017 I have amazon prime pkgs arriving every week at my home! I love amazon but I need to not click on every Gadget I think I have to have! :-) MsAnn, TotallyOz and TownsendPLocke 2 1 Quote
Members RockHardNYC Posted November 25, 2017 Members Posted November 25, 2017 Definitely not a fan of Jeff Bezos. I try not to support wealthy men with my spending dollars who dream of taking over the world. Never liked Amazon's user interface. The fucking pages are too cluttered with useless information. They also keep and store tons of data about you and your shopping habits, and they probably sell that data. I doubt I would ever trust them. Their prices are not always the best. There are plenty of items they don't carry. It can pay to shop around. They try to lock you in with their clever incentives like Prime, but I'm too cynical and educated in marketing to fall for their sales tactics. Quote
AdamSmith Posted November 25, 2017 Posted November 25, 2017 1 hour ago, RockHardNYC said: Definitely not a fan of Jeff Bezos. I try not to support wealthy men with my spending dollars who dream of taking over the world. Never liked Amazon's user interface. The fucking pages are too cluttered with useless information. They also keep and store tons of data about you and your shopping habits, and they probably sell that data. I doubt I would ever trust them. Their prices are not always the best. There are plenty of items they don't carry. It can pay to shop around. They try to lock you in with their clever incentives like Prime, but I'm too cynical and educated in marketing to fall for their sales tactics. I think that is a far too narrow view of what Bezos is doing. He is, to my understanding, a lot more like W. Buffett, finding ways to generate capital, then shifting it around to create more value for everybody. The instance that impacts my industry to enormous good: he used profit from the book business etc. to create AWS (Amazon Web Services), essentially cloud supercomputing sold at provider cost. (A concept that is already bankrupting longtime corporate thieves such as IBM, HP Enterprise, et al., whose hidebound commercial imaginations could never conceive such a thing.) This has revolutionized, and will go on doing so, every segment of software that needs big compute cycles. In my industry, engineering modeling and simulation software, AWS is making things possible that never were before. Quote
Members RockHardNYC Posted November 25, 2017 Members Posted November 25, 2017 1 hour ago, AdamSmith said: I think that is a far too narrow view of what Bezos is doing. I'm sure that's true. I should dig deeper, but there's only so much time in the day. Now that I'm nearing the last third of my life, I want to be more careful with whom I let enter my brain. Which kind of explains why there's no place for Zuckerberg, either. AdamSmith 1 Quote
AdamSmith Posted November 25, 2017 Posted November 25, 2017 11 minutes ago, RockHardNYC said: I'm sure that's true. I should dig deeper, but there's only so much time in the day. Now that I'm nearing the last third of my life, I want to be more careful with whom I let enter my brain. Which kind of explains why there's no place for Zuckerberg, either. Agree absolutely. Why I some time ago banished FB from my life. Not only a time-suck but, worse, a place whose rampant stupidity turned me into a frozen Lot's-wife pillar of salt (thanks to @WhippedGuy for that imagery!) unable to do anything mentally productive for rest of day, every time I looked at it. Ditto for a certain Other Site likewise. MsAnn 1 Quote
Members RockHardNYC Posted November 25, 2017 Members Posted November 25, 2017 4 minutes ago, AdamSmith said: Ditto for a certain Other Site likewise. When I joined Hooville to defend and protect the super talented and sexy Benjamin Nicholas, I had not imagined how dedicated my involvement could become. When Daddy once wrote me privately asking for improvement suggestions, I naively became more involved than I needed to be. Looking back, I would never make the same mistake. My life is too precious to be spending too much time on the internet. Moderation is the best formula for me. AdamSmith 1 Quote
Members Lucky Posted November 27, 2017 Members Posted November 27, 2017 RockHard defines himself as too cynical, too educated, and too precious. Moderation is the best formula for him. Okay, I concede all of that! What I want to know is how you know that you are entering the last third of your life? You could be there already, and maybe pretty far along! Quote
Members Latbear4blk Posted November 27, 2017 Members Posted November 27, 2017 On 11/24/2017 at 8:23 PM, TotallyOz said: Jeff Bezos just passed the 100 Billion dollar mark thanks to good reports from Black Friday. In one day, his net worth increased 2.8 billion. Must be nice. I am an avid Amazon fan. How many others use this on a regular basis? I am Amazon Prime addicted. Quote
Members RockHardNYC Posted November 27, 2017 Members Posted November 27, 2017 47 minutes ago, Lucky said: What I want to know is how you know that you are entering the last third of your life? The first two-thirds are all tangled up and stomped on in the train of my dress behind me. MsGuy and AdamSmith 2 Quote
AdamSmith Posted November 28, 2017 Posted November 28, 2017 55 minutes ago, RockHardNYC said: The first two-thirds are all tangled up and stomped on in the train of my dress behind me. The only way to live! Full throttle. Quote
Members KYTOP Posted November 28, 2017 Members Posted November 28, 2017 Since I am not a Prime member it takes at least a week plus if I buy from Amazon which, if I count correctly has 7 warehouses less than 100 miles from my home. Bought the grand-kids Christmas toys from Walmart.com and got each item in 3 days w free shipping. The 2 toys I got from amazon, 7 days. Of course Christmas is a few weeks away, so no panic. I believe Mr Bezo and Amazon will soon be the target of Federal Anti-trust Laws, just like the Rockefellers, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, etc... The Anti-trust laws, if applied correctly, are meant to keep anyone person, or Company from controlling an excessive amount of the US Economy. With Mr Bezo and Amazon's continued expansion into multiple industries, don't be surprised when the Justice Dept steps in. Quote
AdamSmith Posted November 28, 2017 Posted November 28, 2017 31 minutes ago, KYTOP said: Since I am not a Prime member it takes at least a week plus if I buy from Amazon which, if I count correctly has 7 warehouses less than 100 miles from my home. Bought the grand-kids Christmas toys from Walmart.com and got each item in 3 days w free shipping. The 2 toys I got from amazon, 7 days. Of course Christmas is a few weeks away, so no panic. I believe Mr Bezo and Amazon will soon be the target of Federal Anti-trust Laws, just like the Rockefellers, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, etc... The Anti-trust laws, if applied correctly, are meant to keep anyone person, or Company from controlling an excessive amount of the US Economy. With Mr Bezo and Amazon's continued expansion into multiple industries, don't be surprised when the Justice Dept steps in. With respect, your post contains its own refutation. The commercial opportunity here discovered, largely, by Amazon has woken up a few, to date, of its strongest competitors to likewise get on the ball and do something in this arena: Microsoft Azure IBM Cloud Google Cloud Platform https://www.datamation.com/cloud-computing/public-cloud-providers.html This seems to me the normal business evolution of new-technology markets. Microsoft, Google, and even IBM although in its lately typical bumbling way (Monty-Python-'Convict Ginny Rommetty as a witch! a witch!' ) are catching up with AWS, and beginning to find ways to compete, very effectively. I am as lefty as they come, but I think regulatory intrusion here now -- no need to add, with the various present people in power -- would be worse than disastrous. Quote
Members KYTOP Posted November 28, 2017 Members Posted November 28, 2017 56 minutes ago, AdamSmith said: With respect, your post contains its own refutation. The commercial opportunity here discovered, largely, by Amazon has woken up a few, to date, of its strongest competitors to likewise get on the ball and do something in this arena: Microsoft Azure IBM Cloud Google Cloud Platform https://www.datamation.com/cloud-computing/public-cloud-providers.html This seems to me the normal business evolution of new-technology markets. Microsoft, Google, and even IBM although in its lately typical bumbling way (Monty-Python-'Convict Ginny Rommetty as a witch! a witch!' ) are catching up with AWS, and beginning to find ways to compete, very effectively. I am as lefty as they come, but I think regulatory intrusion here now -- no need to add, with the various present people in power -- would be worse than disastrous. Amazon/Bezo is rumored to want to extend its holdings in the Media sector and has started preparation to branch into the online Pharmacy business, insurance plus many other areas. When you have the cash, not just stock paper wealth, a company will put that cash some wheres besides the bank. If they are successful with their planned/proposed expansion areas, yes I expect some Government action in the next few years. I also believe there are Justice Dept lawyers that are looking closely, ready to pounce, when they feel Amazon has crossed the line of too much economy domination. The companies you mentioned do not operate with Amazon's diversity and planned expansion. IBM has had to divest past holdings to steer clear of Government intervention some years ago. Quote
AdamSmith Posted November 28, 2017 Posted November 28, 2017 3 hours ago, KYTOP said: Amazon/Bezo is rumored to want to extend its holdings in the Media sector and has started preparation to branch into the online Pharmacy business, insurance plus many other areas. When you have the cash, not just stock paper wealth, a company will put that cash some wheres besides the bank. If they are successful with their planned/proposed expansion areas, yes I expect some Government action in the next few years. I also believe there are Justice Dept lawyers that are looking closely, ready to pounce, when they feel Amazon has crossed the line of too much economy domination. The companies you mentioned do not operate with Amazon's diversity and planned expansion. IBM has had to divest past holdings to steer clear of Government intervention some years ago. All I can say is I know him personally and I think his larger ideas are long-term correct. Quote
BiBottomBoy Posted November 28, 2017 Posted November 28, 2017 The thing about Amazon is this; They artificially place their prices low with the goal of destroying mom and pop stores and later on malls. Once they've done this they will greatly increase their prices and we'll all be fucked. Quote
AdamSmith Posted November 28, 2017 Posted November 28, 2017 1 hour ago, BiBottomBoy said: The thing about Amazon is this; They artificially place their prices low with the goal of destroying mom and pop stores and later on malls. Once they've done this they will greatly increase their prices and we'll all be fucked. They have been around quite a while now, and they haven't done this yet. Instead they have, time and again, grown by putting their capital into developing new markets. I think your view expressed here is captive to old-think, in a way that Bezos is not. By the considerable evidence available thus far. Quote
Members Lucky Posted November 28, 2017 Members Posted November 28, 2017 The Paradise Papers reveal how many companies (and individuals) hide their profits from taxes with offshore accounts. Bezos reinvests his profits, and I find that the more honorable way to do business. If he runs into antitrust problems, the current administration will try to crucify him since he is a liberal. AdamSmith 1 Quote
BiBottomBoy Posted November 28, 2017 Posted November 28, 2017 Bezos certainly uses offshore accounts. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/12/amazon-pays-11-times-less-corporation-tax-than-traditional-booksellers Quote
Members RockHardNYC Posted November 28, 2017 Members Posted November 28, 2017 Funny, I overheard one of my building's doormen yesterday complain to an Amazon delivery guy. "These Amazon deliveries are never ending. They occupy most of my day." he said. The Amazon guy replied, "Yeah, don't you know we're taking over the world?" Can't believe I caught that as they were saying it. The Amazon boxes in my mailroom are out of control. Can't help but look at that pile and think of all the trees lost. At least Amazon is promoting their Give Back Box program. I wonder how many users give a shit? Quote
AdamSmith Posted December 1, 2017 Posted December 1, 2017 Pretty insightful look into how Amazon makes decisions... 3 lessons we can learn from Jeff Bezos and Amazon about making incredibly smart decisions http://www.businessinsider.com/3-lessons-we-can-learn-from-jeff-bezos-about-making-decisions-2017-11 Quote
AdamSmith Posted December 1, 2017 Posted December 1, 2017 This piece is, just tangentially, also pretty good... https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/these-24-productivity-tips-will-help-you-start-off-2018-right.html?cid=mustread2 Quote
