Friday, June 25, 2021

The Bezos Theory of Value Is Deeply Disturbing — William Banks

 The rationale for capitalism as a socio-economic system based on individualism. (No systems awareness.)

In his final letter to shareholders as Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos offers a novel — and profoundly disturbing — conception of value creation: a handful of visionaries are the sole source of all “real value.” This aristocracy mercifully blesses customers, clients, and even Amazon workers with social goods.

6 comments:

Peter Pan said...

What is novel about it?
The God's Gift to Humanity theory, or narcissism, has been known since antiquity.

Ahmed Fares said...

In his final letter to shareholders as Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos offers a novel — and profoundly disturbing — conception of value creation: a handful of visionaries are the sole source of all “real value.”

Why is this disturbing? It happens to be true.

Robert Solow won his Nobel Prize in economics for showing exactly that, i.e., that countries first grow by capital, and then after mostly by innovation, i.e., the Solow Residual.

What Is the Solow Residual?

The Solow residual is based on the work of Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Solow, whose growth model defined productivity growth as rising output with constant capital and labor. It tells you whether an economy is growing because of increases in capital or labor, or because those inputs are being used more efficiently. Solow found that only one-eighth of the increase in labor productivity in the United States between 1909 and 1949 could be attributed to increased capital. America, in other words, became great because of American innovation and know-how.

The Solow residual is the portion of an economy’s output growth that cannot be attributed to the accumulation of capital and labor, the factors of production. The Solow residual represents output growth that happens beyond the simple growth of inputs. As such, the Solow residual is often described as a measure of productivity growth due to technological innovation. The Solow residual is also referred to as total factor productivity (TFP).


Having said that, Jeff Bezos deserves millions, not billions. We should tax most of his wealth away to reduce his power, and then, as Randall Wray says, throw it away. This is because from an MMT perspective, we don't need his money because the government can always create money.

Matt Franko said...

Narcissus fell in love with his image not himself… he didn’t think highly of himself that wasn’t the point…

Peter Pan said...

You confusing etymology with a personality disorder?

Matt Franko said...

We’re supposed to love ourselves… have self respect, take care of ourselves, eat right, exercise, etc…

Narcissus didn’t do that he fell in love with the image of himself not who he really was…

Peter Pan said...

Narcissistic personality disorder

Narcissus (mythology)

The character of Narcissus is the origin of the term narcissism, a fixation with oneself. This quality, in turn, defines narcissistic personality disorder, a condition marked by grandiosity, excessive need for admiration, and an inability to empathize.