On 2/8/2019 10:54 PM, rbowman wrote:

Amazon improved. Vastly. I've got Prime and get a lot of items, most of
which are delivered in two days. For me, it's not even about saving
money as much as I can't buy the stuff locally. I watch the Prime
streaming shows and listen to Prime music. Any problems I've had with
merchandise has been resolved quickly. All in all I can't say a bad word
about Amazon.

And now the catch... Should Bezos have become a billionaire? He
certainly should be well rewarded for having a vision and making it
work, but when does the reward become too much? More importantly, where
did all the money come from? I can't say they overcharge; the prices are
as good or better than anybody's. Even if they're a little higher to
offset the shipping, I've been well and truly raped by 'S&H' to complain
about a buck. The people providing the goods must be happy. They're not
exploiting Chinese peasants, at least not directly, since they're not
making sneakers or iPhones. There has to be gravy in the system someplace.

Gates is the same deal. He built on his vision and while I'm not the
biggest fan of the OS the programming tools have been excellent since
long before Windows. Still, where did all the money come from?


It is a way of keeping score. Gates is giving away his money and I read
that Bezos is starting to be more charitable too. If you can do some
good in the world from your good fortune, you are OK in my book.

I places 49 orders with Amazon in the past 6 months. They have stuff
not easily found and at good prices. I buy some of my wife's medical
supplies from them. I will be getting a new Napoleon grill next week for
considerably less than anyplace else.

I also like that Bezos is not taking any crap from the Nat Enquirer
about his divorce. I have a feeling some people may regret trying to
**** with him.