THE TIME HAS COME
Rocket men Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos face off for the crown. We only wish the winner could be blasted into the sun as a reward!
VOTE NOW: https://forms.gle/udviJ3pZFBVGGW7i9
Here’s a reminder of how we got here, but it’s not a final without some contests for the competitors.
Now it’s time for an EMPIRE ASSESSMENT.
Both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are corporate emperors in their own right, but the nature of their empires differs.
JEFF BEZOS: An internet bookstore was the basis of what’s become a vast empire dominating online commerce and extending into many domains, from grocery and health to film and even autonomous vehicles. From there, Bezos bought a major newspaper, created a space company, is beginning to send satellites into orbit, and has invested to try to extend human (billionaire) life.
ELON MUSK: A big payout from PayPal after he was deposed as CEO paved the way for Musk’s investments in electric cars and space. He now controls key infrastructures for rocket launches, satellite communication, and EV charging. He used that power to dabble in AI with his bad sense of humor, fund brain implants that kill monkeys, and trash a key social media platform. He also bores tunnels because of a dumb tweet he made one time.
THE FINAL VOTE
How do you boil down the impact of some of the most powerful and wealthy people on the planet?
JEFF BEZOS used Amazon to remake sectors of the economy to be lower wage, non-union, and far more precarious with major impacts on workers at Amazon and beyond. The innovation was changing the labor model, not world-changing technology.
ELON MUSK has his own history of bad worker treatment. He built a mythology around himself to secure public and investor interest, making it harder for his companies to fail and allowing him to capture key (privatized) infrastructures that give him power over governments and even in global conflicts.
BILLIONAIRE SHOWDOWN: PICK THE WORST PERSON IN TECH 2023
VOTE NOW: https://forms.gle/udviJ3pZFBVGGW7i9
Live results are not available for the final round. You can join our Patreon only livestream that starts at 4pm ET to hear them live when polls close at 5:30pm ET, or see them posted on social media shortly afterward!
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@parismarx can I vote for more than one?
@parismarx
So many hard choices have already been made.
@parismarx Elon musk wins hands down.
@ProfMSinha @parismarx really? I feel that overall Bezos has made the world way worse. He has brought misery to workers, small business owners and manufacturers.
@mkhoury @ProfMSinha @parismarx
Agreed. Bezos' direct impact on humanity and society has for certain been way worse.
All of the people on this list are monsters, of course. It's hard to choose just one.
@mkhoury @parismarx
True but Musk is actively promoting the overthrow of democracy. We need political democracy to fight for economic democracy and social justice!
@mkhoury @ProfMSinha @parismarx I would say that Bezos and Amazon are the embodiment of enshittification. If Amazon disappeared tomorrow, there's thousands of companies trying to follow that model. Musk is clearly a more odious personality, and no-one can deny the harm he's brought to public discourse via Twitter, but there's a lot fewer trying to copy him, especially with his well known issues with Tesla and 4.12 jokes, and his he's broken Twitter.
I think Musk would be far more unpleasant in person, but Bezos leaves a much more unpleasant legacy.
@mkhoury @ProfMSinha @parismarx
I voted for Bezos because objectively he's been worse for society but at the same time I think Elon would have gotten some sort of smug "annoying the libtards" satisfaction out of making 1st place in this so him being the runner up is also funny.
that said, I think Musk is definitely more insufferable
@mkhoury @parismarx true but Musk is threatening the republic itself.
@parismarx Ha ha - It’s a draw!
@parismarx Yep, but when your one and only talent is 'having money', it doesn't alter the fact that he's a complete tosser.
@parismarx I appreciate the need to call out the specific acts of specific people.
But Bezos has not, to my knowledge, broken any laws.
Society declares what is good or bad by writing and enforcing laws. If society fails to legislate and police bad behaviour by its members, then society itself—and everyone in it—is collectively to blame,.
We need to explicate the specific harms the tech oligarchs have caused, by what means, and finally—crucially—translate that into new laws and constraints.
@brent @parismarx Ironically, the process of regulation is exactly what people like Thiel try to escape. It's not against the law to express ideas like this, or even trying to build utopias off the coast of Thailand.
Investors are always incentivized to be one step ahead of regulation by the nature of profit. It will always be a game of playing catch up.
I suspect it requires innovation in the ways we design and enact laws. Clever villains work by following the letter, and defying the spirit. If we could find a new way to write laws wherein the spirit and the letter coincided, it would make it much harder.
But it would also help greatly to close the countless loopholes which these villains sneak into the laws through regulatory capture and corruption. Aided and abetted by immoral politicians and a naive electorate.
@parismarx zuck zs thiel in round 1! Disappointed he didn't make it a few more rounds but thiel was a worthy opponent.
@parismarx I want Bezos to lose, just because Musk shouldn't get first place at anything!
@parismarx Starting from Earth, it's very difficult to fly directly into the Sun. How about we get these two to race each other to be the first to do it? (NB: It only counts if they're on board the spaceship at the time).
@parismarx peter thiel is out
my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined
@parismarx Couldn’t we just pick one up by the ankles and beat the other to death with him?
@parismarx Wouldn't that mean we are still stuck with one of them?
@parismarx
both! elon musk and jeff bezos.
however, do we want to pollute the sun with two baddies.
⧖ @parismarx I can't believe Peter Thiel was eliminated. As odious as Musk is, I feel Thiel is worse. He was my pick for the worst.
@parismarx Do we.... eat the winner?
@parismarx For my money, Bezos.
His business is based on low wages whereby, if the government is actually working, his business is subsidized by the tax payer. By paying so little, the employees are forced to seek government assistance via food stamps and the like. Someone successful wouldn't require their workers to seek out assistance elsewhere. A billionaire failure...
Musk is very visibly (and weirdly proud of being) a complete idiot BUT has less poverty wage employees.
@parismarx
Both, and add Zuckerberg to the list.
@parismarx How about we compromise and send Bezos into the Sun and send Musk to Mars?
@parismarx I voted for Musk strategically - he seems the weakest, and thus the easiest to pick off by annoying him with insults like this until he goes further crazy and hopefully trashes himself and all his businesses.
I'm still an Andreessen recidivist.
@passenger @parismarx Only one way to settle this, I think - a series of deathmatches, televised.
It would probably get the highest ratings of any TV show, ever.
Then we send the one survivor off to Mars, and voila!
The vote happened, the people have spoken and Musk is the Worst Person in Tech. I'm not going to demand that the result be laid aside.
Even if I think Andreessen should have won, I have to admit that Musk fucking earned the trophy. He absolutely paid his dues. We can make room for two on that rocket to Mars.
@parismarx
Can we just say at some point the meter is pegged and there's no point in scoring higher. Because all these bastards peg the meter. And it's a log scale.
@Wintermute_BBS
@jhoward @parismarx sounds reasonable