The Rise of the American Oligarchy(motherjones.com) |
The Rise of the American Oligarchy(motherjones.com) |
This article is a thought-provoking piece that compares today's American billionaires (many of whom have made their fortunes in tech) to the Russian oligarchs that came about post-USSR and the former US uses of the term in the pre Civil War and Gilded Age.
It's an interesting thought piece and speaks well towards how the current class of US ultra-rich got there, and spend their wealth on passion projects and chosen philanthropic endeavors while contributing to the squeeze on the lower and middle class citizens mainly due to our tax code taxing on income and not wealth, and the loopholes that allow them to pay taxes as desired.
I attended college on a 19th Century Robber Barron -funded scholarship, to which I am forever grateful... but there just doesn't ever seem to be a reason to concentrate so much wealth so quickly, undertaxed or not. I read this old cranky bastard's Last Will & Testament and he was just a spiteful, bitter old man that hated his entire existance.
The textbook way to price stocks is at the present value of future cash flows. That is, the company does make money, or will in the future, that can be returned to shareholders. Amazon takes in a ton of money, turns a profit, and could return some of that money to Bezos for him to spend. (Whether or not they actually do is a tax law triviality.) It wouldn't matter if the shares were priced at $1 or $1000, they would theoretically return the same cash to Bezos for him to spend, which is why he would still be rich.