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Bezos isn't going to miss a chance to dick people over. Because apparently he's not rich enough yet.
Imagine what the world would be like if we treated sociopathy as the vividly destructive mental illness it so obviously is, rather than rewarding sociopaths with wealth and power.
What is his goal? More zeroes on a spreadsheet? Does he take satisfaction in being evil?
It's likely the same as corporations.
Once they get so much money, they focus on quarterly profits. Then you compare percentage change from last quarter/month.
So he just doesn't think about the billions he has banked.
Or the multimillions he makes a year
It's a small percentage of change, and making 90 million after 100 million can be viewed as losing money this way, which makes these fucking psychopaths believe they need to be even shittier to make more money.
He's not looking at his wealth, but at the rate he's accumulating it, even though he literally can't spend what he has now if he tried.
I could spend it on creating positive change in the world, but nah; better for the corporations to have it I’m sure.
Having the most wealth which leads to the most power is clearly his goal.
Can we finally focus on real estate reform now?
This latest housing crisis has made it abundantly clear that allowing wealthy individuals and corporations to own single family homes is destructive to society as a whole.
The priority should be owner occupied homes. People need housing security. If even the middle class with career jobs can't afford a modest house in their peak working years, the system is broken.
We can attack this runaway housing inflation by doing the following:
Ban companies (including hedge funds, etc) from owning condos and houses. Apartment complexes are still fair game, because society needs high occupancy buildings which require more capital to build and run.
Limit individual ownership to 3 (as an example, number doesn't matter) dwellings. This will curb the rampant "buy for short term rental, parlay into next purchase for short term rental" scheme. We still need rental properties, and small local landowners should be the priority.
Heavy penalties for selling in under 2 (as an example) years. This will also curb the short term rentals due to added risk, as well as curbing the flippers relisting at 30%+ (and I've seen 100%) markups after 3 months.
Each of these wouldn't be outright bans which would potentially too big of a disruption. But in phases, using increasing tax penalties as the stick.
We need to stop treating homes as a commodity. They are a basic essential.
I still don't understand how this hasn't been a bigger priority in government. I wouldn't expect Republicans to care about it at all, but it feels like nobody is giving it any attention at the State or National level. These out-of-control rents and housing prices are insane. I've got a relatively ok salary and I'm barely staying on top of things, but I don't know how the hell anybody else is still holding it together.
Lobbying and self interest.
These reforms may result in housing prices decreasing or holding steady. Which is a plus for anyone entering or laterally moving to occupy. It's a negative for people using housing as an investment.
It's not a stretch to assume that a lot of politicians are in the multiple land ownership territory. And thus, would "hurt" them personally.
Same with WFH endangering commercial real estate. Lobbies and personal interest. Plenty of business owners in politics.
It’s not a stretch to assume that a lot of politicians are in the multiple land ownership territory. And thus, would “hurt” them personally.
More to the point, it will cost them any support among suburban homeowners, which is how we got here in the first place. That's a massive bloc of voters and very few homeowners don't see their homes as an investment
Yes, the "fuck you, I got mine" is the core American voter demographic, unfortunately.
I would add a progressively higher tax rate for each property beyond 2-3.
Probably a controversial opinion but companies should not be able to own residential real estate at all, the reason most people cant get a house is because big companies are buying them up with limitless sums of money so they can rent them out infinitely, its not a free market when the big company will pay 20% over your entire life savings just to make sure you don't own anything.
Not just limitless sums, companies are borrowing at very low interest rates and skyrocketing real estate prices with free money. Consequelty also causing mass inflation. So you're paying for them owning houses.
Absolutely nothing controversial about the truth. In fact, I'd say it's the exact opposite of controversial, at least in this case.
residential property should not be able to be bought by corporations, there is no benefit in allowing that to happen at all
It's sure beneficial for the rich fucks behind these companies. Everyone else gets fucked.
100% tax over a billion dollars.
Yeah all the $40k/yr MAGAts gonna haaaaaate that
Literally straight up evil
It will not stop. The government won't step in, because they are all in on it. Their money comes first, above all else. The way they treat me homeless people today is how you will be treated tomorrow.
There is only one way to stop the runaway cancer of greed, and it's not by writing angry notes.
How the fuck does anyone even afford to buy a house now? Billionaires keep buying them all out just to rent them out, to buy more houses. It's almost as bad as me trying to use a hula hoop.
It's not just billionaires buying up all the housing, it's anyone who can afford the investment. Real estate makes interest in value year over year with minimal upkeep costs AND it generates revenue every year from rentals. If you manage to secure permits to convert it to multifamily you instantly split your house into two parts with nearly the same individual value, almost doubling the value on the spot at the cost of adding a couple of walls and doors and maybe a kitchen.
Real Estate as a source of investment and revenue goes contrary to the idea of accessible housing for everybody. If it's a lucrative investment with greater low risk returns than any other low risk investment type, why would anyone take more risk?
My landlord is 45 and owns 4 properties with a total of about a dozen units. He bought a small business with the income and retired from his job at a defense contractor. His total wealth is under 10m and he started with probably little more than 50k ~25 years ago. Low interest loans have done wonderfully for anyone turning a small amount of cash into a big amount, assuming you bought in the right place with the intent to rent out to middle class workers.
Not to mention REITs, or real estate investment trusts. Entire corporations dedicated solely to buying up property for share holders.
This right here is the modern slavery and politicians are condoning this predatory behaviour.
The richer the rich get, the less the rest of us look like the middle and lower classes and the more we look like peasants. Serfs.
The more wealth inequality widens that gap, the more modern capitalism starts to look like techno-feudalism.
And that's really what they want without saying it, isn't it? They don't want us to own anything of our own...work their fields and factories, pay them to live in housing they own, and convert all other possessions into subscription services, all in an effort to create a system where the rest of us only exist as a source of labor and wealth for them, where even what they pay their serfs comes right back to them.
Why should anyone own a home when they can rent them from the capital class?
You're not rich if you own a home. You're rich when you own everybody else's home
Fuck this fucking fucker
Lol a big fuck you to all middle class and that includes you too Ryan. Carrying an iPhone and driving a Mercedes on a loan doesn't make you rich if you still have to be in the office mon-fri and slave 9-5.
So is this guy, like, the Devil? Every headline I see with him is like "Emperor Palpatine is buying single family homes" where I just assume it's for some nefarious purpose that's gonna benefit his regime and dick over a looooot of people.
He wants quarters for his wage slaves, duh.
Waiting for Amazon to pay their employees in “digiscrip” that they can only use at Amazon-owned businesses.
Pay your rent on your AmazonHousing account.
Buy groceries from AmazonFresh.
Health insurance from AmazonHealth.
Welcome back to the coal mining towns of yore.
so sick of this neofeudal bullshit
Boy, he's really trickling it down on all those families' heads...
Burn it to the ground. I would rather burn my whole neighborhood down than have Bezos own it.
disgusting.
Well this isn't creepy as fuck.....
Yeah it’s the human condition. Power corrupts. It always does. It would corrupt me. It would corrupt you. What’s it like to live real life in god mode? I know what you do when the cheats get turned on, because I’ve done the same. But what happens when there is no option to restart the game? Or to play something else? You return to the game. It’s all you have. You become determined to make it progressively worse because you’re average. You have no imagination. You suck. You’re not a leader. You’re a regular dude for the most part and not cut out for this shit. You fuck it up. If we’re in a simulation, it’s the worst kind. One controlled by the simulated.
I used console commands to help play Half Life 2 when I was younger. God was super boring, obviously, and I only used the refill ammo/health thing when I really needed it. I even restricted myself to only using weapons that I had earned access to even though the ammo command gave me all of them. Also, Dolly Parton uses her wealth to buy books for kids.
Bezos is just a really shitty person. Power doesn’t corrupt every time, but it sure attracts bad people at a much greater rate than it does good people. Luckily many good people are also out there fighting to make sure that it’s not only bad people with all the cards.
Meanwhile the republicans want to remove the estate tax