how about the human cost of everything we buy then? Most of it is made in China anyway. Why single out Amazon and Bezos?
Shaming the wealthiest (known) man in the world for the business practices that helped make him that way is quite fair. The same things have been written about Apple.
... and nobody cares about an /r/Entrepreneurs guy drop-shipping some widget from China.
Are people entitled to wages higher than the prevailing market rate simply because their employer is capable of paying such wages? Do you really want to live in a world where employees of rich people get paid more than employees of more average people? The vast majority of workers would not be lucky enough to work for a really rich guy and would be paid less for the same work than the few who do. That seems less fair than everyone being paid the market rate.
Consider what might happen if Amazon paid their workforce 5% more than their competitors instead of paying bottom dollar. Competition for that higher wage would improve the quality of their workforce (and then produce a higher quality product). Other employers would them also compete to get quality workers.
I'm sure Amazon would be willing to pay more to well-qualified workers than to less-qualified workers. But that's not the type of argument I was responding to. The parent comment suggested that Bezos should pay his employees more simply because he can afford to.
I don't see how it's reasonable to base employee wages on the wealth of the company owner -- if Amazon stock tanked and Bezos lost a lot of money, should he cut employee wages? If not, then why should he increase wages when his personal wealth increases? It would be better for employee wages to be based on the employee's skills, not the employer's personal financial circumstances.
The equilibrium may still not end up with A and B paying the same, but personally I care more about everyone having enough than everyone having the same, so even unequal wage increases are a positive in my book.
The justification for the wages being the wages is that that IS what the open market decided.
I was not aware Kindles were poorly assembled and subject to low yields in terms of quality currently.
Actually it wouldn't be so simple. Amazon is one of the lowest margin businesses on earth. The vast majority of Bezos' wealth is in Amazon's overpriced stock.
It wouldn't really be possible to pay workers a larger wage both from his wealth, seeing as its stock, nor from cutting margins further.
It's not his workers. It'S Foxconn. Is Bezos also responsible for the livelihood of the people who mine the rare metals in the poorest countries? By this logic this is a never ending chain of responsibilities.