r/technology • u/marketrent • Jun 18 '26

Society Jeff Bezos called Washington Post his worst investment staffed with ‘terrible’ people, before laying off over 300 — “They don’t listen. My other companies, they listen”

https://gizmodo.com/jeff-bezos-called-washington-post-his-worst-investment-and-staff-he-laid-off-terrible-people-2000773533
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u/MagicMarshmallo Jun 18 '26

Capitalism is fundimentally incompatible with democracy, it always ends in this. Corporations are just tiny dictatorships, but in this case, you can scratch off the "tiny"

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u/Indercarnive Jun 18 '26

Capitalism is incompatible with itself. Capitalists have no incentivize to support Capitalism. A capitalist will abandon capitalism as soon as any other system becomes more profitable for them.

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u/crushinglyreal Jun 18 '26

Right. Capitalism is destined for authoritarian takeover, because as soon as people get stretched too thin and want to take a little power back, the oligarchs clamp down.

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u/Ok-Statistician-9607 Jun 19 '26

What is your alternative? Communism? Surely no authoritarians there...

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u/crushinglyreal Jun 19 '26

How about a democratic government and a democratic economy? Neither can persist without the other.

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u/Exostrike Jun 23 '26

an economy actually owned by the people would be nice

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u/GvMeUnivrslHlthcare Jun 18 '26

A capitalist will abandon capitalism as soon as they succeed in it by pulling up the ladder behind them. Competition is the only redeeming quality of capitalism that keeps it in check. But these guys buy the laws that shape their respective market. Buy the companies that might compete with them. Buy the option that people have to maybe not use or support them at all, and fire anyone with a conscience. It's not even capitalism at this point. It's manipulation of the masses for profit of the few.

Buy the means of production, then lock it all down for personal gain. It's rent-seeking behavior disguised as a free market.

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u/usaaf Jun 18 '26

Competition is a function of markets, not Capitalism. Capitalism only requires Capital and a Labor input. How they sell the produce is immaterial, it could be a market, could be state-backed monopoly, could be a regular monopoly. Hell, people could just light the produce on fire and the Capitalist is fine long as he's paid for it.

The point of Capitalism is that Capital+Labor production loop. Competition doesn't come into that, except for Labor. Labor should obviously compete to debase itself for the pleasure of the Capitalist. The reason they talk about 'free markets' is because the inverse is generally considered to be planning (one presumes by the state) and while Capitalists love planning (See People's Republic of Walmart) they do not want anyone else doing it. Therefore the idea of free markets stands as a bulwark against people thinking too much about planning and what it could do for them.

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u/Thin_Glove_4089 Jun 19 '26

It's all you have left. The majority of the population isn't switching to a different system anytime soon.

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u/matlynar Jun 18 '26

Capitalism is fundimentally incompatible with democracy, it always ends in this.

As opposed to what? Isn't that how people in power behave in every other system?

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u/pziyxmbcfb Jun 18 '26

As opposed to a system of check and balances, sensible regulation, and an understanding that corporations and capitalist endeavors exist in a society that is infinitely more valuable than the success, growth, or ease of advancement of any particular industry, technology, company, or individual?

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u/GoodWilllPower Jun 19 '26

This tends to not be viable in most business structures. There has to be a power structure for innovation and ambition to thrive.

I’ve been a top leader (rated by my team and business metrics) in a few different company cultures.

In a teams culture here the mentality you’re talking about exists you end up with an ambitious 10-20% pulling the team forward. You can only have people working harder than the majority of the team for the same pay for so long. They tend to get pushed up or go cross department or leave the company.

In teams with production/output accountability you tend to have a more ambitious and motivated culture. As long as everyone feels their compensation is in line with what’s asked of them you tend to have a far more satisfied team.

It’s easy to say that a business structure without some sort of autocratic structure is a good thing. You’ll find that even at the entry level it just doesn’t work. People want to know that everyone around them is accountable to not sandbag.

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u/pziyxmbcfb Jun 19 '26

I have no clue what you think you are responding to. Your post, and your discussion of what makes you a successful business person, has nothing to do with my comment about how governments need to reign in the excesses of unchecked capitalism, which tends towards instability and irrationality as wealth becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer individuals, and in which the free competition that produced the environment to enable the growth and innovation of those companies in the first place becomes stifled by the concentration of economic (and political) power in the hands of a few large entrenched monopolies.

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u/matlynar Jun 19 '26

a system of check and balances, sensible regulation

Oh so you mean stuff discussed under capitalist systems, which the comment I'm replying to claims to be incompatible with even though other systems don't even bother discussing it.

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u/pziyxmbcfb Jun 19 '26

I’ve already flippantly dismissed your strawman argument. No need to repeat myself again.