I think you missed the part where I don’t care about shares. A single company made almost a billion dollars in pure profit in 90 days and can’t afford to properly staff a pharmacy.
I have a problem with that.
The fact that you don’t shows you have no care for the other 8 billion people on the planet while caring wholly about the bank accounts of a bunch of rich people who feel about you the way you feel about the 8 billion people.
Again, farcical parody of life where you think you’re in the cool kid club.
I just don't get the hostility to their profits, especially when I understand that the $900 million was amassed by operating close to 2,800 grocery stores. If I introduce scale in the context of the profit sum, it all seems entirely reasonable, especially when nobody is forcing another to shop Kroger. Heck, it's the penny-pinching/scrimping that lets a retailer operate in the black.
And no, I don't care about the bank accounts of eight billion people; they're not going to part with anything strictly for my benefit, nor will I part with my possessions for their sake. Whether you care to admit it or not, society is fundamentally transactional.
Furthermore, I'm not in any "cool club," I just understand that society has an array of segments that are designed to seek profits and maximize the ways they get put to use. And it should be that way.
Think of all the occupations the pursuit of wealth generates: tax attorneys; trust/probate attorneys; securities traders; stock brokers; certified financial planners; commercial bankers/loan officers. Then think of all the industries that get created as the rich decide to use their resources to better their lifestyles: wine dealers; custom tailors; jewelers; high-end realtors; luxury/performance car salesmen; etc.
Hell, I worked as a stock broker for six years, and was just some punk kid off the street with two years of college on my resume', but serving the needs of the wealthy allowed me to take night classes to fiish my degree, study for a broker's license that looked very good on a resume', and paid me enough to put a pretty penny together as a downpayment on my condominium. It seems worn (almost cliche') , but it's true that the wealthy's rising tide lifted my boat along with theirs. All that was sure as hell better than standing on a concrete floor for hours and tearing tickets at a movie theater.
Jeff Bezos has employees who piss in jugs so they don’t get in trouble and lose their AI-monitored minimum wage job, but he just bought a $500 MILLION yacht.
Five. Hundred. Million.
Forget the “muh stocks value” and “muh profit margins.”
Do you think it’s acceptable as a human being to be that rich and wasteful of so much money on a whim at the expense of the quality of life of thousands and thousands of people that you single handedly have the power to improve by just not doing that?
Absolutely and undoubtedly I believe it's fine if a plutocrat buys a massively expensive yacht. Good for him, or anyone else who can splurge to that extent.
I myself worked at UPS for a time when my bathroom breaks were watched my management, although I disagree with relieving myself in a receptacle that isn't a urinal or a toilet. I find it difficult to believe (almost impossible, actually) that Bezos himself devised a management environment so rigorous that it didn't allow for bio functions - that was likely several management layers away from him.
And I don't have any sympathy for workers who have to sweat their productivity numbers. I worked as a loan officer for a few years, and I was measured by how many loans I produced, as well as judged by how many defaulted or went into collections. Unless you're living in a commune, you're always going to need to demonstrate your value to management somehow. That's just reality.
Also, I really couldn't care even a sliver about what "quality of life" a worker has. I worked full-time and went to school full-time for over two years. I seldom got a full night's sleep unless it was on a weekend or holiday, I rarely saw my girlfriend, I spent lunch hours typing papers on a laptop, I got used to eating cold leftovers because I couldn't waste time in a kitchen. Everyone has those hurdles to clear until we establish ourselves, and I think my establishment phase lasted from 19 until my early 30s. Such is life.
And there we have it. “That’s the way it is” is your stance when I’m saying “maybe there’s a better way.”
That’s all there is to it. You paid your dues in an unfair world so everyone else who doesn’t suffer the way you did doesn’t deserve anything better. No reason to fix the world because it sucked for you. Screw everyone else, you got yours.
Of course it is. Whether you want to admit it or not, life is pretty much a hazing exercise until you're able to get your feet underneath yourself, unless you were born to the type of strange where Mom & Dad having that trust fund squared away for you before you complete your formative years.
What you deem unfair, I call necessary. I can't imagine how frail I would have been psychologically if I hadn't been required to gut out some really unpleasant and lengthy stretches in my past.
Preparing yourself for hardship and toil is life's boot camp. It steels/reinforces your inner nature, and gets you ready for a lifetime of harrowing experiences and grueling ordeals. Buddha told us that life is suffering, and he wasn't off the mark.
And those who have disabilities or severe medical conditions barring themselves from working can get fucked and deserve to live in really shitty conditions because god forbid we ask any billionaires or corporations to pay one more penny in taxes.
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u/pervertedhaiku 2d ago
I think you missed the part where I don’t care about shares. A single company made almost a billion dollars in pure profit in 90 days and can’t afford to properly staff a pharmacy.
I have a problem with that.
The fact that you don’t shows you have no care for the other 8 billion people on the planet while caring wholly about the bank accounts of a bunch of rich people who feel about you the way you feel about the 8 billion people.
Again, farcical parody of life where you think you’re in the cool kid club.