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PaperclipPerfector  22d ago (text post)   34239 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 11, 2024

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No. Bezos’ wife number one was a key part of him being able to build Amazon; she has a legitimate partial claim on the fortune and it’s not like she divorced him because she felt like it.

When you say she was key, do you mean she was significantly involved in the leadership or funding of Amazon, or do you mean in terms of general love and support?

The latter is generally underrated, but I doubt it was necessary or sufficient for Bezos to found Amazon.

Not knowing more, I would be fine with the wife getting ‘live in reasonable comfort for the rest of your life’ money and I would be fine stoning Bezos for adultery, but I don’t see that divorce qualifies her for ownership of his fortune.

She was effectively a co-founder with Bezos who also had a full time job so he could dedicate himself to the company building IIRC. Figuring out who’s fortune was who’s was less important when they were married but giving her a massive chunk in the divorce is pretty fair.

Well in that case thanks for the insight.

When you say she was key, do you mean she was significantly involved in the leadership or funding of Amazon, or do you mean in terms of general love and support?

From what I've read, she was effectively working for the company from its founding until it was self-sustaining in the late 90s, doing everything from negotiating logistics deals to even shipping packages when it was still operating out of a garage.

If your comparison is the first dozen employees at Apple or Microsoft, she probably deserved pretty hefty compensation just for that effort alone. But there are probably other reasonable perspectives.

Thank you to both you and @hydroacetylene for explaining the situation. The judgement makes much more sense now.

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