“The tax law that congressional Republicans and US President Donald Trump enacted last summer has proved to be a massive boon for Amazon, slashing the corporate behemoth’s 2025 tax bill even as its profits surged and it moved ahead with mass layoffs that have cost 30,000 workers their jobs since October.

“Citing a new securities filing, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Amazon’s “current US taxes, an accounting measure of taxes incurred last year, declined to $1.2 billion from $9 billion” while the company’s “pretax US profit increased by 44.5%, to $89.5 billion. On a cash basis, the company paid $2.8 billion in federal income taxes last year after paying more than $7 billion in each of the prior two years.””

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[–] 13 points 9 months ago (11 children)

Their bunkers plans are mostly insane. Zuck has a bunker designed for him and like 100 staff. I don't think he understands how the power dynamics are going to change once civilization ends and his money isn't worth anything.

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    They do, they actually worry about it:

    Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system, and asked, “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?” The Event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, unstoppable virus, or malicious computer hack that takes everything down.

    • Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, D. Rushkoff
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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (8 children)

    Easy, he just has to make an inner and an outer chamber, where most of the staff are kept in the outer chamber and only a handful of his most trusted individuals have access to him. He might even be able to make it so only robots can serve him in his inner cloister.

    People really think these dudes haven't thought it through? They've floated explosive collars for Pete's sake...

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (7 children)

    Lol dude even the prison from Andor needs maintenance staff who aren't prisoners to operate and fix shit. This model doesn't work when prisoners and the prison are all there is.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (6 children)

    An inner chamber in a bunker that's only large enough for himself and his family is more of a residential scale rather than a commercial scale. He can let in one handyman at a time with relative safety. It's not like he has to bring a whole maintenance crew into his sanctum to change the washers on his bathroom sink.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    Why will the handyman keep coming?

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (4 children)

    He'll probably get paid just enough to keep him and his family slightly above the level of poverty that everyone outside the bunker will be reduced to?

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    Paid with what? Who stops him from demanding more, and how are they paid and with what? Billionaire power comes from currency that is spendable on a large open market. The market doesn't exist anymore.

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    I explained this in a different comment. They would have servers in their bunkers which allow them to continue to control the systems which extract resources and exploit labor in order to generate more wealth for themselves.

    It doesn't matter if the market ceases to exist. Whoever controls supply lines, controls the resources. And the billionaires can pay just enough people to keep the automated systems working in their favor.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    It's all about the supply lines. If they can control them and keep them intact, then they maintain their grip.

    They might not be stocking grocery stores and stuff like that, but a smaller operation that's just enough to feed themselves and the people who serve them is enough to buy some people's loyalty.

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