They literally covered this in the book the everything store by Brad Stone. This is their game play. This is how they take over categories. Let over people to the sales and testing, then rip them off and undercut them.

I disagree. It may not be as direct, but if you're on HN then your lifestyle is likely supported off of the back of poor exploited people.

Sure, it's not your fault that Foxconn employees jump off buildings, but it is why you have your lifestyle. (that's meant to be illustrative, not literal. Hence overly specific to Foxconn)

Sure, it's not in the same way through your direct choices, but like Bezos you are playing the game, and choosing not to reward those supporting your lifestyle.

But more importantly here Bezos is choosing this, as opposed to buying some more and bigger private islands. Yet he's being criticised for this more than if I had.

> If Jeff Bezos gives up the same percentage of his accumulated wealth, that helps many, many, many more people and affects his lifestyle even less.

As someone else wisely pointed out: Bezos has already helped people more than you have. That's how he got his money.

People telling him he "should" give away most or all are ignoring that he earned his vast wealth by creating orders of magnitude larger wealth in the world, and taking a cut for providing what wealth.

Yes, Amazon has done some pretty shady stuff (see book "The Everything Store", for example), but Amazon got big from providing value to people.

That said, no I don't think there should be decabillionaires at all. Nobody can "earn" that much. Nobody is truly that irreplaceable. But given that he is that rich, this spending isn't the unfairness you're looking for.

I’m torn badly with Amazon. After read The Everything Store, and what has been written all over the place, Jeff Bezos is a massive turd. Employees are horribly treated, wages suppressed, and all sorts of terrible and abusive practices.

Then it comes time for me to buy something. I needed a new pair of size 14 sneakers. I drove to Adidas, Footlocker, dicks, and a few other stores but I just couldn’t justify $100 sneakers that didn’t look like prison issued.

Opened my Amazon app in my car after leaving the crowded mall, and find what appear to be a decent pair of shoes. FakeSpot agreed with the reviews, and I bought then for $35. They will arrive tomorrow.

That kind of convenience is terribly addicting. I haven’t figured out the solution, but I remember what it was like when Walmart came to town, put others out of business, mistreated employees, etc. We were unable to stop it then, how the heck are we going to stop it now?

So aside from “just stop buying from Amazon” what can we do ?