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Comment by _carbyau_ | Hacker News Reader

Same could be asked of any billionaire.

Think about it. 1 Billion. A person who lived 100 years would have $27,397 a day to spend. Including as a newborn infant.

At Bezos levels? roughly $5.3 million a day.

What could you do with 5 million a day? Well for the first 3 months of your life as a newborn, not much probably.

But as an adult certainly, you could find ways to spend it right? Great. Society would love to see some cash splashed around. The economics people always love to see money sloshing around society.

So why can't these people simply stop accumulating and start letting it flow? They'd get to enjoy it. Their society would benefit from it. It'd be good for everyone.

The more these people are forced to spend down their wealth - however they want to! - the better.

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with that logic, what's the threshold for forcing them to spend down their wealth? 1 billion, half a billion, 1 million, 1 hundred thousand?

If the government takes it, what are they going to spend it on? Foreign wars, jails, lavish mansions for leaders?

But quite honestly, if somebody makes a successful business, wise investments, or works their ass off building an empire, who's to say they can't enjoy all the wealth they've brought in?

Bezos may be filthy rich, but because of the countless hours of work he put in (don't tell me he didn't work nights and weekends while his employees worked 9-5) so you can enjoy groceries on demand, 2 day delivery on almost anything you want, and great video streaming. Stop using the services he created if you want his wealth to go down.

Threshold? Say a billion. To be revised as inflation does it's thing.

I never mentioned the government taking it.

I want them to enjoy the wealth they have! Not as a big number, but as use of that number to buy/experience/do things. Bezos can buy 5 Ferraris a day for the rest of his life if he wants to for all I care. Just use the stuff.

Bezos is indeed rich, and no doubt worked long hours. But it wasn't the hours he did.

#1 Median wealth american = $121,760 Bezos wealth = 196.1 billion

If it was just the hours then (median wealth american work hours) x 1.6million = bezos work hours.

If the median american worked a mere 1 hour a week, then Bezos is working 1.6 million hours a week. Seems kinda tough to fit into the schedule...

No, he has leverage. And in this thread I am not even questioning whether he should have that leverage. Just saying, he's got money, he should spend it.

And I do try to avoid Amazon as best I can. But it is embedded in computing/supply chains and there's only so much anyone can do.

#1 https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/average-net-worth/

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