My Prime Membership is now over after many years of membership, and I'm a little disgusted it took me this long

Jeff Bezos is the wealthiest man on the planet.  He has so much money, I doubt he could find enough ways to spend it all...unless he declares military war on some poor nation, which I don't think he will be doing in the near future.  Since its inception in 1996, Amazon has grown from a feisty book-centered marketplace into a global behemoth that has a better software, hardware, and customer service model than any other platform on the planet.  That's a bold statement, I know, but look at what it has grown into and then ask yourself:  Where will it end?  Because I don't think Amazon's services and growth will ever end.

Everything at Amazon, internally and externally, is a service and has been for a long time, and because of that, has grown at a tremendously stable pace.  The model of 'everything is a service' is a fantastically versatile model in software engineering, but is rarely accomplished, so I appreciate all that Amazon has proved can be done with it.  Amazon just will not be toppled by another company either, because the service oriented architecture frames their foundation as already fractured, but connected.  Not one cohesive unit but not really separate services or systems of software;  not wholly interconnected or inter-reliant but know how to work with other services and without them. So, throw another behemoth at them and they may buckle, but I have no doubt they'd adjust.  The service oriented architecture has been preached and practiced from Bezos' pulpit for well over a decade now, and it's ingrained in everything they do.  Because it works.  Because it's less buggy.  Because it's easier to maintain, to inter-connect, and for the poor bloke sitting in front of this computer, much easier to consume than disregard even in this grand time of digital innovation and choice.

Notwithstanding my admiration for Amazon's software architecture (not that I really have any deep insight into it - I have courteously refused every attempt by an Amazon recruiter to pull me into the ranks), I am more and more disgruntled at the idea of continuing to subscribe to Amazon Prime, knowing that so many of Amazon's profits are really just going into one man's pockets.  Because I am a discerning person, I can apply my talents at discernment to Bezos' character and morals based on how he manages his company and his wealth.

Now, for a little perspective, what I would term a 'good rich man' is one who will distribute the wealth accumulated by the efforts of so many back into his employees' pockets - into every tier of the company.  He would give back into the communities where his warehouses are kept and do what he could to benefit as many people as possible.  And if wealth afforded him the opportunity, he could broaden his vision to trying to fix our cities'/countries'/world's problems.  The altruist in me may go so far as to that that's all wealth, especially vast wealth, is really good for - to help other people.  For me at least, true meaning and purpose in my professional life comes in giving back, in the very least in serving those who've served you so well for so long.

Now, let's apply the 'good rich man' model to Jeff Bezos.  Why Bezos?  Well, Bezos is the wealthiest man who has ever lived, and no one else at his company can even compare to his individual net worth.  Amazon's overall net worth is around $700 billion (that's $700,000,000,000).  Now let's do a little math, lest someone charge me with besmirching the Bezos good name (keep in mind this data is from reports no later than 8/22/2018).

The average salary at Amazon is $28,000 (yup, Google it)..

The number of employees at Amazon is 563,100 (go ahead, Google that).

This means that it takes roughly $15.8B to pay for every employee's salary per year.  That's a large amount, but only b/c Amazon employs half a million people.

Jeff Bezos owns 79 million Amazon shares of stock, which today closed at $1,905/share which is then valued at $151,495,000,000 (Google that and then pull out your calculator...and, yup, I'm right again).

Bezos made $17,000,000 in salary in 2017 which is roughly 607 x $28,000 (tired of Googling this yet?).

His stock could be traded in to pay the average salary for every employee at Amazon for  about 10 years.

This, to me, paints a very clear picture of just how much he values his employees.  That's right, they might as well not exist.  Employees at Amazon must really just be ants to work until they're dead, and then easily replaced by an endless supply of middle Americans who can't say no to work at a place that well...should never have layoffs.  Ever.  However, I guarantee that if the world takes its business to Alibaba or some other platform and Amazon loses business, layoffs will happen long before Bezos dips into his own pockets to pay for the losses. 

Is Bezos the only one in this kind of situation?  Of course not.  He is, however, the richest man who has ever lived, so he deserves a little more of this attention than anyone else.

My point is, no successful man or woman in the world gets there alone.  It is always through the labors of many, many people that true success is achieved, especially on global scale.  But if the guy in the spotlight, who actually controls the flow of money to all those people leaves them out of the loop during his incredible windfall of success...well, what kind of person would do that?  I don't need to say that out loud, do I?

I thought not.  With some very superficial number crunching, I realized I just couldn't support a man like that, nor (unfortunately) all the incredible and equally deserving people who helped him get there.  And so, while a part of me mourns for the uncelebrated worker ants at Amazon, the rest of me righteously withdraws my subscription to Amazon Prime.

So, take that, Jeff Bezos.  You just made $119 less this year (cried the raindrop to the desert).