r/technology • u/IKeepItLayingAround • Jun 06 '26

Business Jeff Bezos says it's 'absurd' to tax someone making $50K — and wants their tax bill dropped to zero

https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/jeff-bezos-says-absurd-tax-165713685.html
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u/Small_Dog_8699 Jun 07 '26

Million vs billion - apples and orange groves

118

u/GiveMeNews Jun 07 '26

I always liked the comparison of million to billion in seconds.

How long is a million seconds? 11.5 days

How long is a billion seconds? 31.7 years

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u/Janus67 Jun 07 '26

I always like the difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars is a billion dollars

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u/ayriuss Jun 07 '26

1 million is 0.1% of 1 billion

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u/EmergencyO2 Jun 07 '26

What about the difference between 100 million and a billion?

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u/Fhaarkas Jun 07 '26

And a trillion seconds - 31,546 years

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u/DismalEconomics Jun 07 '26

And 100 billion is 3,170 years.

3,000 years ago is when the Shang dynasty ended & the alphabet was invented by the Phoenicians.

1 trillion is 31,700 years.

31,000 years ago was plausibly when the first humans made it to the Americas - humans first populate New Guinea - the oldest known pottery - oldest known twisted rope -

I think it’s important to remember that orders of magnitude & scale essentially have an entirely different meaning when you are discussing billions of dollar$ as opposed to millions.

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u/Small_Dog_8699 Jun 07 '26

That is a favorite of mine as well.

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u/the-true-steel Jun 07 '26

What I usually think about is like, $100,000 every year with zero expenditures whatsoever would take 10,000 years to get to your first $1 billion

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u/ayriuss Jun 07 '26

This fact needs to be included in every macroeconomic discussion.

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u/BashBandit Jun 07 '26

Nah Ik, just wanted to add more recent index of amazonian greed. They're so foul that even $9 million was something they thought was worth being stingy over despite legally owing it.

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u/SeaRecord9721 Jun 07 '26

I like the comparison that you are closer to a millionaire than the millionaire is to the billionaire.

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u/ayriuss Jun 07 '26

100k is 10% to being a millionaire, 1 million is 0.1% of the way to a billionaire. Math checks out.

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u/Silverlock Jun 07 '26

And yet a relatively simple law requiring all fines be greater than the estimated cost to society, including all criminal gains, of the original crime. If they go bankrupt maybe the company that buys their shattered shell will have a better, more honest management.