What's wrong with this man? - Jeff Bezos

Why don't you watch this man (Amazon's Bezos) talking? You need some time. Asking about his strange movements of his head. Is that a medical sign for something?

Besoz is interviewed by the CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer. There is a transcript of the interview as well.

Jeff Bezos reveals what it's like to build an empire and become the richest man in the world — and why he's willing to spend $1 billion a year to fund the most important mission of his life
Mathias Döpfner - Apr. 28, 2018, 10:39 AM

I thought it's a revealing interview.

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janis b's picture

I don’t know what to make of his fast talking mouth and bobbling head, but it reminded me of those plastic figures people used to have on their car dashboards. I preferred reading the transcript of the interview, which was oddly fascinating. And the constantly waving seed stalks as backdrop was bizarre and made me dizzy.

I think he might be a little bit crazy, as witnessed by his Blue Origin endeavour …

Now take the scenario, where you move out into the solar system. The solar system can easily support a trillion humans. And if we had a trillion humans, we would have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts and unlimited, for all practical purposes, resources and solar power unlimited for all practical purposes. That's the world that I want my great-grandchildren's great-grandchildren to live in.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

@janis b And they're going to get it because nobody wants to 'rock the boat', except maybe when it comes to idpol crap, but it doesn't cost anything, say, to let gay, trans and people of color die killing colored people on another part of the speck of dust we call a planet.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Lookout's picture

Using just a portion of his wealth he could solve world hunger and provide all people clean water...but he has no desire nor intention of doing so. I call that sick...a terminal case of affluenza.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

ggersh's picture

We live in their world, it doesn't get any
worse than that, maybe ending world hunger,
ending poverty, curing cancer, giving your
employees a living wage etc.etc.etc.

Döpfner: Last week we had Bill Gates for dinner here and he said in a self-ironic manner that he has a ridiculous amount of money and it is so hard to find appropriate ways to spend that money reasonably and to do good with the money. So what does money mean for you, being the first person in history who has a net worth of a three-digit amount of billions.

Bezos: The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel. That is basically it. Blue Origin is expensive enough to be able to use that fortune. I am liquidating about $1 billion a year of Amazon stock to fund Blue Origin. And I plan to continue to do that for a long time. Because you're right, you're not going to spend it on a second dinner out. That's not what we are talking about. I am very lucky that I feel like I have a mission-driven purpose with Blue Origin that is, I think, incredibly important for civilization long term. And I am going to use my financial lottery winnings from Amazon to fund that.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

@ggersh go on and on and on about all that luck but do not ever consider paying your employees a living wage. Sickening.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

@lizzyh7

he wouldn't have all these excess billions to blow on something which will definitely not benefit Earth life in any way, shape or form, now, would he?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

ggersh's picture

@Ellen North one of his warehouse's where ambulances
wait outside for the inevitable worker passing out
or to see the parking lot full of cars w/employees
sleeping. I don't believe that's any worse than
during the industrial revolutions beginning

https://www.mhpbooks.com/amazon-warehouses-working-condition-complaints-...

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

@ggersh

of having ambulances wait for workers to drop and be taken to hospital gets 'reformed' into a series of 'more cost-effective' trucks ready to take loads of fallen workers to the nearest landfill...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

thing but man, too many platitudes out of the richest man in the world. Harder to be kind than clever, too bad he didn't really take those words to heart. He sounds like he's still that 10 year old smart ass thinking he's got all the answers. And interfering in WaPo would be "icky?" OK, whatever. Thanks mimi, it's good to know what the latest bullshit spew out of people like this is in order to work that much harder at countering it.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Bezos is not exactly a sociopath. He is not an evil genius. He is the ultimate expression of capitalism.
Take his story of 1984. He said that it was a mistake that only a large corporation could make, and his explanation was believable - but it was based on someone's (not him) selfish/capitalist immorality, the "I sold it to you, but I still own it" system. See, it realy wasn't his fault, it's just the system that made him look bad. All PR.
When asked about his low wages and horrible working conditions he talks about his employees in Germany - which forces him to behave differently. We Americans could do the same, but we don't, so he doesn't, and sees nothing wrong with that.
He isn't Big Brother, it's just a company contract that he's bought.
He's not a mastermind, he's just lived a bunch of platitudes without a thought as to the underlying morality.
He started as a venture capitalist.
He's Eichmann triumphant.

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On to Biden since 1973

Amanda Matthews's picture

to spend all his money except on ‘space travel’. How sad.

BTW...

Amazon's Checkout-Free Store Makes Shopping Feel Like Shoplifting

Customers can walk in, grab what they want, and walk out—all while being monitored by a sophisticated system of cameras.

JAKE BULLINGER
JAN 24, 2018 BUSINESS

SEATTLE—I entered Amazon Go, the company’s checkout-less convenience store in Seattle, at 10:23 a.m. Monday and spent precisely 11 minutes and 59 seconds browsing before I walked out with a sandwich and a yogurt cup. This information was available because the moment I scanned a personalized QR code at the store’s subway-style gate, myriad cameras on the ceiling started tracking me. Every time I picked up an item, it was added to my virtual cart; when I placed the item back on the shelf, it was removed. A couple minutes after I walked out, Amazon charged $6.61 to the credit card linked to my account. The receipt included the time-spent-shopping tidbit, presumably to impress customers with how little time it took to buy lunch.

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Given what’s already known about automation, labor economics, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s appetite for expansion, there’s little reason to believe the company won’t scale up the innovations tucked into its new convenience store. By further easing the buying process and collecting even more consumer data, Go’s underlying technology is a logical next step in Amazon’s brick-and-mortar retail pursuits.

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Once the novelty wears off, that shoplifting sensation will in theory become an appreciation of speedy transactions. In exchange for that convenience (which could also entice greater spending), Amazon will surely reap vast amounts of data. Amazon won’t say exactly what its cameras monitor, but it says the camera system is inspired by the same technology that guides self-driving cars. If the sophistication of Amazon’s retail sensors comes close to that of automotive systems that might produce four terabytes of data per day, then Amazon will surely gather insights more detailed than just shopping duration and items removed. Should a customer, for instance, grab a six-pack of microbrew beer, only to return it a minute later and exchange it for cheaper Rainier, Amazon might learn that the customer is a price-sensitive shopper and perhaps send them coupons for higher-margin items.

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This has some worried about the economic implications of Amazon Go’s technology becoming mainstream. Cashiers are economically vulnerable—their median pay was about $20,000 in 2016—but numerous; 3.54 million Americans hold the job, second only to the number of retail salespeople. The repetitive nature of the job leaves it particularly susceptible to automation; researchers at Oxford University have concluded there is a 97 percent chance cashier jobs will be automated, and that was back in 2013.

Those who shopped at the Go store on opening day were pondering what the technology would mean for workers who hold low-skill jobs. Joy Carter, a service-industry worker and one of the masked protesters, said Amazon’s business model was “built on exploitation of low-paid workers,” adding, “It’s not going to be anything good for the working class.” (Amazon declined to answer questions about its new store, and did not respond to a request for comment about its pay practices.)

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/01/amazon-go-store-che...

This guy is a waste of skin and spit.

EDIT: Jee/Jeff

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa