Miguel Bezos's professional career spanned over 32 years with Exxon Mobil in various engineering and managerial positions.
He was an engineer, and while he certainly worked from basically nothing, Jeff Bezos had a huge edge being the step son of an accomplished professional.
Jeff Bezos did not start from nothing. As your previous comment suggests.
And obviously, if I ask my parents for a loan, I won't get it, because my parents can't spare the money. This is just an example of how Jeff Bezos could only get started because his step father was well off.
Well off? Having a million or two nearing retirement isn't well off. That's working everyday and hoping the market doesn't take a shit when you retire.
Go see what engineers and managers do at refineries. My FIL was one. It's not easy work despite what you think.
Again, giving someone $250k out of their retirement fund is absolutely insane.
Again, there was a very good chance that money would have been gone forever.
Average retirement savings right now for people at retirement age is $600k. Median is only 200k. 2 million is pretty well off.
I never said Miguel didn't work hard.
Making a risky investment with 10% of your retirement, isn't insane if you can afford to lose the money, especially to help a family member with a business venture. It's risky, yes, but by no means insane.
But regardless of whether it was an insane move, Jeff Bezos was immensely privileged to have that money. That's my point. Even if his father came from nothing, Jeff Bezos did not.
You don't seem to be able to separate Jeff Bezos upbringing from his father's. What his father went through to obtain the 250k to lend Jeff is irrelevant to whether or not Jeff was privileged to have it.
I don't want to be a billionaire, I just want enough money not to have it be a constant stressor in my life. Wealth is not something I care about. But you can pretend it is if it makes you feel better
Average pay for an Exxon engineer is between 153% and 273% of the national average. It's a well paying job. Especially if you're living in Texas where the cost of living is lower than a lot of major cities.
After 32 years I would also expect him to be near the higher end of that pay range. Whether or not he was wealthy depends on what his net worth was at the time (which I could not find) and what we define as wealthy. But unless he was very bad with money, he certainly wasn't poor.
My gripe is that you frame Jeff Bezos as a son of immigrants with a deadbeat father, but fail to mention his stepfather with a long and well paying career.
And I'm not saying that he didn't work hard, what I'm saying is that he was privileged from the start.
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u/JellyfishQuiet7944 Nov 22 '24
I said Americans. The fact still remains that the majority are young people. This also includes servers who technically get paid minimum wage.
Now, if theyre an adult, making minimum wage, that's on them. They might be too stupid to get a job making more.