this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2024
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Okay so then how is he worth that much?
These memes and stories are like, "its unbelievable that Bezos is worth so much money", no it makes perfect sense!
Recipe for a billionaire includes:
Billionaires like to think they worked hard but in reality they exploited others and were lucky in some form or another. Exploitation comes from paying workers as little as possible and/or having such terrible work conditions to maximize efficiency to the point that who cares if someone dies working. Fighting unions and keeping costs down (including pay) means more profit. It also means you can charge less to force other competitors out of business unless they can do the same amount of exploiting to keep costs down.
Beyond that, there's just general business and economic concepts like operating at scale which luck or generational wealth can help shortcut there.
Being born wealthy isn't really optional. It's actually necessary and a big reason why this system is so absolutely terrible, because the American dream is a capitalist myth to manipulate the masses.
The exceptions are not always exceptions, like the apartheid boy Elon and the 1 in a million that actually is an exception is drilled into our brains by the media like how gambling companies make ads about the people that win the lottery.
Being born wealthy can also just be wrapped into luck. But i separated it because it isn't strictly required, however unlikely, to become a billionaire. Exploitation and luck in some form is required every time.