There are basically 4 ways to accumulate a billion dollars in America:

1) Profiting from a monopoly
2) Insider trading
3) Political payoffs
4) Inheritance

Don’t believe the self-made myth.

@rbreich There has never been a monopoly in the history of the world that wasn't created with government support, usually via IP protection or raising barriers to entry,

And I hate Amazon, but in no way is Amazon a monopoly.

@fishdan @rbreich you’re right that Amazon isn’t a monopoly. However, it is the leader of American oligopoly, an also entirely unethical system in which a very small number of companies have been able to dominate the entire marketplace by using the same tactics to destroy competition that a monopoly does, particularly for exurban consumers, including leveraging government support.
@amaditalks @rbreich Preach! The fastest way to fix this is to make it easier for other companies to compete with Amazon by not honoring their IP patents.