Comparisun did a piece called “The Trillion Dollar Club” which is getting a lot of attention. They were analyzing the current rates of growth of the biggest businesses in the world and when those businesses will be worth one trillion dollars. Then they turned their sights on which PEOPLE will become trillionaires in our lifetime. Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, and he’s due to become a trillionaire in the next six years. Ugh.
Google looks set to join their fellow tech giants Apple and Microsoft in hitting the $1 trillion mark within the next year (as will Amazon, who have hit the threshold in the past but have briefly dropped out again). The numbers suggest that they’ll soon be followed by the last of the Big Four tech companies, Facebook, whose market cap currently sits at around $665bn, but has seen an average growth of 24% over the last five years, which, if continued, could see them join the club in 2022.
Next in line would be Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate and financial services provider Visa who could both hit $1 trillion valuations by 2023.
Despite losing an estimated $38 billion as part of his recent divorce, Jeff Bezos is still by far the world’s richest person and his net worth has grown by 34% on average over the last five years, which could potentially see him become the world’s first trillionaire as early as 2026, at which point he’ll be aged 62. While he might have to wait a couple of extra years, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg could gain trillionaire status at a younger age than Bezos, as his current rate growth would see him worth $1 trillion aged 51.
I don’t find it surprising that tech companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft are due to become trillion-dollar companies. I mean, I don’t like it but it makes sense logically. What I don’t get is how Jeff Bezos and Amazon can be worth a trillion dollars – Amazon underpays its workforce and treats workers like utter sh-t and that just seems like a horrible f–king strategy long-term, and since we’re talking about long-term projections, will there ever be a reckoning for Bezos and Amazon?
Anyway, Twitter had feelings about the Bezos news.
Jeff Bezos makes $2,489 per second meanwhile, millions of people are currently unemployed. pic.twitter.com/86H2FuQLue
— Jameson (@OnlyFans____) May 14, 2020
Jeff Bezos about to become a trillionaire and still can't pay his workers.
He is actually the real life Lex Luthor and we don't talk about it enough.
— blackness everdeen 🐺 (@traceyecorder) May 14, 2020
Me: JEFF BEZOS IS A GONNA BE A TRILLIONAIRE??? THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!!
Also me: Places my 3rd order from Amazon for the day.
— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) May 13, 2020
Jeff Bezos is expected to become the 1st trillionaire as he consolidates the retail market during coronavirus.
Now Amazon is telling its workers (who have faced significant risk) that it'll be ending their hazard pay at the end of MAY!
Atrocious greed.https://t.co/JOcsZBwSGo
— Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (@RepBonnie) May 13, 2020
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
Oh great, we have trillionaires now. Great. Spellcheck has nothing for “trillionaires” … did I spell it right? Who knows, I am not going back to check.
No one should be a trillionaire.
Absolutely insane.
Insane and obscene. I watched a documentary a couple of weeks ago. One tech ex-rest said, “If you own all the data, you have all the money. You win. You are king.” Bezos was mentioned…
‘.
His girlfriend’s face looks so jacked. I guess no amount of money could fix that.
This is untenable and frankly really scary. This is unhealthy.
I think if he were smarter, he would hide how wealthy he is especially with the economic effects of the pandemic.
Amazon can’t honor it’s Prime contracts on shipping because it hasn’t expanded hiring, pay, protections and benefits for employees dispite the extraordinary profits the pandemic is generating. Word is a class-action suit(s) is coming.
If you find something from a third party seller on Amazon you can generally find that retailer and order directly from them (or find another source – anything you find on Amazon you can find elsewhere). We use Prime for media (‘today only’ books and the prime channel) but I do my shopping elsewhere.
I work for an e-commerce here in Europe.
Amazon IS THE WORST.
Really and I am someone who menages to have 4.8 stars reviews so I know the game: all their business it’s based on blackmail: you have to ship, you must delivery, you are judged about your performances in the customer care and on and on: it’s THE WORST.
I hope the governements of differents countries will start to sue him because of TAXES.
Just gross and morally wrong.
This is the most depressing news I’ve read in a while.
But, oh wait, he’s starting a study on the Amazon. That will keep us peasants happy, right?
Here’s a start, purchase millions of acres in the Amazon and put it in a trust or something to keep it from ever being developed. Study done.
Here’s an idea, give your “contract” workers good pay, benefits, hazard pay.
Here’s another idea. Today, donate $25,000 to one food pantry in every state.
Ooh, another idea. Give everyone at the Washington Post significant raises. So they make livable wages in Washington, DC.
These are all drops in the bucket for billionaire, soon to be trillionaire, Bezos.
Two cents!
I really miss Liz.
That’s wonderful!
Some of us are just hoping our unemployment benefits arrive soon!
And…. I just cancelled Prime.
Cut his head off. Redistribute that to the bottom 20%.
Or he could just pay his workers a lot more, and take a lot less.
Either way, i’m fine with it.
I’m assuming that this includes division of assets from the divorce. I know Mackenzie Bezis had pledged to give a big chunk (maybe half?) of her wealth to Non profits ( as she should, no obscenely wealthy person should get a cookie for giving some of their wealth to non profits— we should expect them to do so, as well as be taxed appropriately which in this country does not happen). But the petty gossipy part of me thinks it would be great if she gave some hefty donations to Covid relief right now, to follow on the tails of this story……
No one becomes a billionaire (let alone a trillionaire) alone, he’s made his money off the backs of others, by treated his employees horribly, and by other non-ethical means.
That Bezos has become a trillionaire is a symptom of our rotting society,
In California we were at a 51 Billion plus prior to Covid-19. We are now at a 55 Billion dollar deficit and considered in a pandemic recession. We are looking at you Amazon, and also looking at Airbnb.
Well the first billionaire I became aware of was Michael Milken the Drexel junk bond baron in the 80s. It was pretty shocking then too.
Someone will always benefit massively in a global crisis. I don’t order anything on Amazon anymore that I can either get somewhere else or don’t really need. Which leaves one order every few months. I wish there was a good streaming service similar to Amazon Video. But so far, in Germany, I haven’t found it. Netflix is great but a different model with different content.
Why anyone would keep this amount of money is beyond me. You can’t even spend it. I know he doesn’t have a trillion of cash in his account but still.
I remember there was a Forbes story about this around the time his affair with Sanchez became public. Then there was a recent one that said that he made back is divorce settlement within a month of the COVID 19 taking place and people staying home.
Soooooo…how is not taxing the rich helping America again?
Frankly, I think it’s disgusting that anyone has that much money and isn’t lifting entire populations out of poverty with it, or doing something to save the world. At some point the dollar figure becomes abstract because who can comprehend a trillion?
It’s even more disgusting that Bezos, with all his wealth, exacerbates inequality further by underpaying his staff and profiting from it.
He’s gross.
Agreed. 100%.
Disgusting and immoral. We’re back to the dark age, with powerful kings and poor peasants. Only, the systems that allow this are different.
It’s actually not too difficult to figure out how Amazon is/was a trillion dollar company, Amazon Web Sevices is the single largest service provider in the world. Almost every website (outside China) uses AWS in some way, and a lot of the time, it’s a backbone service that goes unnoticed because it runs in the background where you can’t see it.
It’s not surprising. Amazon is successful for a reason. And literally nobody would care if he paid his workers like human beings instead of treating them like cattle.
True. People don’t realize that the e-commerce and retail divisions of Amazon are loss leaders for the company. He makes the majority of his wealth from Amazon Web Services.
He could shut down Prime/Books/Whole Foods/Retail and be juuuust fine.
.
He didn’t make this money without relying heavily on infrastructure that he isn’t helping support because he underpays and overworks people. He is enriching himself at the expense of other people.
-you decided to erase your post?
This is why it’s so important to shop as small, independent and local as possible, whenever/wherever possible. If you can afford it, avoid Amazon at all costs! Indiebound, libroFM, etsy; there are a zillion options that don’t include pouring more money into this Lex Luther wannabe’s pockets.
I have always been a fan of small businesses in theory, but Amazon’s prime service has made it so convenient to just click and purchase. Lately Amazon deliveries have been taking weeks – and that has forced me to put my money where my mouth is and support curb-side pick-up from the mom & pop businesses. And I am happier for it!
Avoiding Amazon won’t hurt him. At all.
Like I said in a post above, he could shut everything down and be a-ok money wise. He (Amazon) makes his money off of Amazon Web Services. Not his consumer divisions. Those are the company loss leaders.
Kind of like how Costco makes its money off of memberships and nothing from selling its rotisserie chicken, hot dog and soda combo, and gasoline items.
Go ahead and stop shopping from Amazon, especially if it will give you a sense of personal satisfaction but know that if you are a power user (as most people are) it will only hurt you (via deprivation) in the long run. It won’t touch Jeff.
This news will infuriate Trump.
Ugh and to think I used to work for a company owned by Amazon… *shudders* I’ll admit I am a Prime member though I really don’t watch enough Amazon video content to justify the cost. BTW they do not give their employees free Prime. So many people asked me this when I worked there. Or at least that was the case as late as 2018 when I left. Nope, you gotta pay up just like everybody else. Unlike HBO who gives their employees free HBO Go.
I also am only going to order from Amazon from now on unless I absolutely have to and need something in a pinch I can’t find anywhere else. I know it won’t hurt Bezos, it’s a drop in the bucket for him. But I have been ordering more things from Etsy lately and I’ve decided I’d rather support small, independent business owners than Mr. Trillionaire. The quality on Etsy is hugely superior anyways!
As a lifelong Seattleite, I’ve seen how his business has contributed to the downfall of our city for over 20 years. Seattle used to be a very decent place to live, affordable for all types of families and not too crowded. However when Bezos decided to center his campus in the middle of the city, the horrible gridlock began, housing prices skyrocketed, mom-and-pop stores could no longer afford to be in business. Now Seattle housing prices are out of control, the infrastructure is crumbling, and it takes ages to get anywhere because of the traffic. It’s a corporate cookie cutter city that’s lost it’s uniqueness.
All this would be bearable if Bezos had decided to start giving back to the city which he has taken so much from. His charity work is so pitiful and laughable, he has more money than anybody yet chooses to do absolutely nothing to help the less fortunate in our area. He is the epitome of greed and these people and corporations need to be taxed and held accountable.
Faye G … great post. Sad as all get out … but great. It is wrong that that was allowed to happen. Too much bowing to money, not enough thinking.
In part he’s going to be a trillionaire because his net worth is tied to Amazon’s through his stock holdings. And his compensation package relies heavily on non-cash compensation because it’s taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income. We need some serious reform in our tax code that stops giving preference to investment income above a minimum threshold.
Income inequality at this level is not good. This country has serious political fissures. Wealth is accumulating for those who will never need it and then lying fallow because people like Bezos can only buy and decorate so many goddamn houses. People are desperate. It’s a recipe for disaster.
I find Amazon and Jeff Bezos to be disgusting. NOBODY EVER NEEDS THAT MUCH MONEY. That he is making that and asking Whole Foods employees to “donate sick time” to each other, and treating Amazon workers like crap, while making obscene amounts of money… it is so off putting. I will actively seek out local companies rather than ordering anything on Amazon.
I sometimes wish there weren’t Amazon posts on this site. I am a long time reader and lover of all things Celebitchy, I just don’t like the thought of promoting products that line his pockets even further. Just my two cents, not that it really matters!
Tax his a$$! And tax it thoroughly.
Side note: Is that the horrid Scooter Braun lurking the back of that boat pic with Bezos? But of course …
Improve working conditions, employee benefits and pay Jeff!
I cancelled my Amazon account last year when all the articles appeared about how poor the work conditions are for Amazon staff and how terribly they are payed.
Buy local if you can people.
Guillotine
This worm Is only rich as a result of his hard working employees. He could single handedly hand over 10k to each unemployed person in the US. Wake up and demand more from the rich!!! They are nothing without us it’s our money and our work