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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1392 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 7, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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In the Mondragon system, the share itself actually has no value, since it is not tradeable by design.

The thing that has value is the capital account, and those typically only vary by how long a worker has been with the company - and it only gets filled with actual profits. So Bezos and janitor #1 have pretty large capital accounts, but the rest of the 1.6M employees have less, since they haven't been with the coop for as long.

I'm not going to bother doing the math on this over the course of Amazon's existence, but last year their net income was $78B which is $50k per employee. Companies usually reinvest much of the income into themselves rather than take it as profit.

You're right, Amazon isn't the best example. For comparison, the rest of FAANG make more than $500k of profits per employee and have been for a long time. Amazon has to many people in comparison - but even here, $50k extra per year makes a significant difference for the janitor. Maybe makes it more obvious that Bezos only got there by exploiting a large number of workers.

For comparison, the rest of FAANG make more than $500k of profits per employee and have been for a long time.

It's going to take you a long time to become a centimillionaire at 500k a year.

Amazon has to many people in comparison

Amazon has a large staff of directly employed warehouse personnel. Other FAANG companies do not; in fact, the literal janitors are not actually on the payroll, they are contractors.

even here, $50k extra per year makes a significant difference for the janitor.

My contention isn't that income wouldn't increase for the lowest paid employees under this scheme, it's obvious that it would. My contention is that it's impossible for the CEO to be a billionaire if he's only earning 3x what the janitor makes unless the janitor is a centimillionaire, which is impossible.

Maybe makes it more obvious that Bezos only got there by exploiting a large number of workers.

It's difficult to explain how paying people market wages is exploitation, but ymmv depending on the amount of ressentiment in the target audience.

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