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Getting filthy rich off the pandemic

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posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 07:12 PM
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About a month ago, Amazon began outselling WalMart . In total, people spend approximately 11 billion dollars per week on Amazon. (That's not a misprint)
Yes, ol' Jeffrey has done well. Think your hot-shot attorney cousin making 800 bucks an hour is big-time? Bezos makes $3,700 a second. During covid, Amazon's already staggering profits have more than tripled.

Amazon may be raking in the most, but there others, to be sure.
As the coronavirus pandemic devastated small businesses and plunged millions of Americans into poverty this summer and fall, executives at some of the country’s largest corporations sounded surprisingly upbeat.

Many CEOs and corporate spokespeople paid lip service to helping the little guy, but the truth came out.

Walmart, whose CEO spent the past year championing the idea that businesses “should not just serve shareholders,” nonetheless distributed more than $10 billion to its investors during the pandemic while laying off 1,200 corporate office employees.

Computer gaming was already big, but during covid, with millions of people home-bound, it became huge. Huge! The CEO of graphics card maker Nvidea almost sounded a bit guilty about their profits.
“With all that’s happening around the world, it’s really unfortunate,” said Jensen Huang, chief executive of graphics chip maker Nvidia, during an August earnings call. “But it’s made gaming the largest entertainment medium in the world.”

Then we have the giant Berkshire Hathaway.
i]Berkshire Hathaway raked in profits of $56 billion during the first six months of the pandemic while one of its subsidiary companies laid off more than 13,000 workers. Then Salesforce, Cisco Systems and PayPal cut staff even after their chief executives vowed not to do so.
Yessir, some real humanitarians!


Finally, we have this study in greed:
Merck Sells Federally Financed Covid Pill to U.S. for 40 Times What It Costs to Make



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 07:23 PM
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a reply to: ColeYounger

The carcass of the USA is being bled dry.



I just hope folks are paying attention.



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 07:27 PM
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a reply to: ColeYounger


the coronavirus pandemic devastated small businesses

No... our reaction to Covid-19 has devastated small businesses, nothing else. In Australia, more people die from car crashes than Covid-19, yet we still have some of the strictest lockdowns in the world and countless small businesses have been devastated. Countless people now have their entire future shattered and uncertain... and in the mind of control freaks all this pain and suffering was worth it.



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 07:31 PM
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originally posted by: ChaoticOrder
a reply to: ColeYounger


the coronavirus pandemic devastated small businesses

No... our reaction to Covid-19 has devastated small businesses, nothing else. In Australia, more people die from car crashes than Covid-19, yet we still have some of the strictest lockdowns in the world and countless small businesses have been devastated. Countless people now have their entire future shattered and uncertain... and in the mind of control freaks all this pain and suffering was worth it.


Sweden serves as the example countries should follow. Sweden never locked down, never wore mask, and now have some of the lowest covid cases in the world all due to natural immunity.



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 07:45 PM
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Btw, I have made a fairly substantial amount of money off this pandemic, because I'm not an idiot and I can see how markets are being directed by the big players. However, I would give up every cent I made to end this nightmare without a second thought, because the mental health and economic health of this planet matters much more to me, I'm not a complete psychopath who wants the world to suffer while the rich get richer. It's sickening, and I know it makes wealthy people feel guilty, and they think some virtue signalling on the internet will make them feel better. Fake virtue is worth nothing, it's pretentious and self-serving, and often founded on propaganda they got from the MSM, which is again controlled by billionaires.
edit on 6/10/2021 by ChaoticOrder because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 07:49 PM
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Brilliant,
Government prints tons of money gives it to people for free, those people take the money they didn’t earn and give it the wealthy where the money will get hoarded and not recirculated and boom guys like me that’s been working through this scam will end up having to pay that money back.

Awesome



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 07:55 PM
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a reply to: Brotherman

Trickle up economics!



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 07:57 PM
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originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: Brotherman

Trickle up economics!



Right on brother!

Build back better strategy 101



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 08:13 PM
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a reply to: Brotherman

That is the biggest misconception about this whole thing. All that free money will cause inflation and simply end up back in the bank accounts of the rich. So the less wealthy people end up back where they started, but now inflation has caused prices to sky rocket, so they're actually worse off.

Making money during this pandemic is quite simple if you have a little money to play with. Just invest in things which absorb inflation, like real estate, electronics, crypto, etc. Investing in big pharma and other industries which are essential during the pandemic would also be lucrative, although I didn't do that.

Endless free money sounds like a good idea to anyone who lacks money, which is why it's so dangerous imo. It will only end with the rich being richer and the poor being poorer, which is why the vast majority of socialist nations eventually fail. An economy needs real economic activity to function.



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 08:14 PM
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The robber barons of the late 19th century were amateurs compared to Gates, Bezos, and Zuckerberg. The old school guys ran monopolies, exploited workers, and engaged in various unethical business practices.
The modern day bunch does all that, but they also avoid paying taxes, and they spy on their customers and steal their personal information to sell. Some of them don't even really produce anything.



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 08:55 PM
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posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 08:58 PM
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Eventually Pfizer shares will crash, hurting the little guys who invested in it while the big baron takes the money and hoards it. This is why I will never buy Pfizer shares. They always rip off the little guys.
edit on 6-10-2021 by Yongpengsun44 because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 09:24 PM
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a reply to: ColeYounger


You can also add Pfizer Inc. on that List . 60 BILLION in Vaccine Sales in 2021 .



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 09:26 PM
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a reply to: TzarChasm

I think you mean nanny state governments undermining the proper functioning of capitalism. This is why the world is totally screwed, no one really understands economics or what the core issues are. It's just endless virtue signalling and ranting about the evils of capitalism, telling us we need UBI's and other forms of free money so that we can eliminate poverty. I pity this planet...
edit on 6/10/2021 by ChaoticOrder because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 09:31 PM
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a reply to: ChaoticOrder

No. I definitely mean exploitative industries. The "proper functioning" of capitalism looks exactly like what OP described. Accumulation of capital, property rights, competitive markets, price systems, wage labor, etc. And where does all that revenue go.

See above.
edit on 6-10-2021 by TzarChasm because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 09:33 PM
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originally posted by: Yongpengsun44
This is why I will never buy Pfizer shares. They always rip off the little guys.


Morality prevented me from investing in Pfizer. I didn’t want to “feel dirty” making money off of something I knew to be corrupted. This was BEFORE the forced coercion jab. I researched the side effects and only found unicorns spewing rainbows and defecating lollipops. Nothing is THAT GOOD.

Every cellular function within our bodies needs the sun, essentially we are solar-powered, and yet, we can get skin cancer from the sun.

Water is the elixir of life and yet, we can drown in it or drink too much of it to cause our own demise.

I don’t mean to content drift. I am guilty of buying and relying too much from/on Amazon. I did make it a point to buy from locally owned shops and farm-stands but most of my “stimulus money” went to Amazon.

So much for morality 🙄



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 09:39 PM
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a reply to: TzarChasm

I'm pretty sure the government dictating what businesses can and cannot stay open is not how capitalism is supposed to function. I'm pretty sure endless free money is not a real solution to inequality despite what socialists think. I'm pretty sure the economic system we live in right now has no resemblance to free market capitalism. Yet people demand more of the same things which got us into this problem... like I said the world is screwed.



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 09:50 PM
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originally posted by: ChaoticOrder
a reply to: TzarChasm

I'm pretty sure the government dictating what businesses can and cannot stay open is not how capitalism is supposed to function. I'm pretty sure endless free money is not a real solution to inequality despite what socialists think. I'm pretty sure the economic system we live in right now has no resemblance to free market capitalism. Yet people demand more of the same things which got us into this problem... like I said the world is screwed.


Used to be America was resentful to the 1% because they held 95% of America's total wealth. Now they are justified in hoarding what's left of the pie as their rightful reward for being so good at playing monopoly while their ground troops are sacrificed because there isn't enough crumbs to justify their service.



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 10:13 PM
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a reply to: TzarChasm

Lmao where have I said that allowing these monopolies to dominate the economy is a good thing. One of my main problems with these lock-downs is the funneling of billions to monopolies like Amazon. Everything you say uses completely backwards logic. America was once seen as a land of wealth and prosperity, people used to believe in the American dream and capitalism, they looked to the wealthy as a sign they could one day achieve it, and didn't resent or hate those with more wealth, simply because they had more wealth. Some of those rich people were even respected for their innovations and contributions to increasing the living standards of everyone.

Now people are programmed to see the world with nothing but hatred and resent. Here's a question for you, would you like to live a 3rd world socialist nation where everyone is equally poor, or a western nation where the average standard of living is much higher, despite the fact inequality is also much higher (aka bigger gap between rich and poor)? Yes we'd all like for everyone to be wealthy, but unfortunately reality doesn't work that way, we can't all have a mansion on the river side. Even if we had the money, there's not enough land or resources available, if everyone was rich we'd kill the planet much faster than the current speed we are killing it.

I look at it like this, I'd prefer to live in a nation with a lot of rich people, even 1% means I have a 1 in 100 chance of being rich. When a nation has more rich people, it also tends to have a higher average standard of living, even if those nations have higher levels of inequality. What really matters at the end of the day is the average standard of living and the standard of living of the least wealthy. Some mix of socialism and capitalism is often a good thing, and can create higher standards of living, but as I've explained many times before, it's very easy for excessive socialist policies to undermine the proper functioning of capitalism when taken too far.


originally posted by: ChaoticOrder on Aug, 14 2021

I've written quite a few threads about the benefits of capitalism and the flaws of excessive socialism, but it recently occurred to me that I've never really explained the flaws in capitalism, and why I believe those flaws are preferable to the ones found in socialist systems. One of the primary reasons I have a deep disdain for the fearmongering around Covid-19 is because of the economic damage it is doing to small and mid size businesses, the types of businesses that have always been the heart of western economies. As the smaller businesses fail they are being replaced by massive monopolies which are making record profits.

This shows us the first glaring flaw in capitalism, the formation of monopolies, and the ability for the people who make laws to give unfair advantages to some businesses and not others. However I would point out that heavy socialism or full blown communism is an even more insidious form of centralized monopolistic systems which control every aspect of our life. I would also ask the question, which political ideologies are most responsible for the creation of these monopolies during the pandemic?

The intrinsic necessity of capitalism

edit on 6/10/2021 by ChaoticOrder because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 6 2021 @ 10:17 PM
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a reply to: Yongpengsun44

Are you from Sweden? I just ask because I actually made a thread about Sweden wondering what was happening there since I had seen people say they never locked down or mandated masks, and someone who lives in Sweden commented that none of that was actually true. So I don't know what the truth is about Sweden.




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