Traits Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg Share

What traits do Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the founders and CEOs of Amazon.com, Tesla, and Facebook, respectively, share or have in common? To many people, the first thing they recognize is that each of them is very, very rich. Also, words such as iconic, forward thinking come to mind. Each of these men also holds the ability to make and shape public opinion. At any time it is very likely when you check whats happening in the news at least one and possibly all their names will come up.

In our modern world where hype flourishes it is difficult to underestimate the amount of influence each of these individuals wields. Both Bezos and Musk have excelled in grabbing government subsidies to build their empires, these subsidies come in many forms some that exist more under the radar and some blatantly obvious. All three, make a point in weaving the narrative that they are instrumental in moving us towards a brave new world where the masses, (you and I) will benefit greatly from their actions.

One thing that is totally undeniable is that a massive amount of hype surrounds each of these men. None of them come across as shy considering all three are constantly in the news and it seems this is not by accident, in fact, they seem to be publicity hounds hell bent on hyping their brand in any way they can to enhance their fame and wealth. Few people deny each of these individuals by themselves constitute a force to be reckoned with, however, when grouped together they represent something far greater and that is the global elite.

These three men in many ways epitomize the American idea of fame and fortune. Each of them has added an incredible amount of money to their wealth during the last few years. All three have seen their fortunes swell by billions as their companies' stocks have soared. Both Bezos and Zuckerberg have each seen their fortunes swell by more than $20 billion this year according to data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Another thing that has soared is their lobbying efforts and the amount of money they spend in Washington DC to garner special considerations. Below you will find a few facts or links to recent news blips about each of these men.

Washington Post Moves Bezos Into Shaping Opinions

Jeff Bezos----The founder of Amazon.com has indeed had a good 2017 and in the last few weeks also claimed the title of the worlds richest man. Among the goals of this online retail mogul is replacing workers with robots which his company will both build and market plus controlling one of the most influential news media giants in America, the Washington Post. This high-flier is also the head of Blue Origin, a company with big plans to pioneer the frontier of space. Last but far from least as Amazon's CEO Bezos ties this all together with Amazon Web Service or AWS. This is a cloud service which also collects data and has ties with the government. This means they know when you are sleeping, they know when you're awake, they know when you are bad or good or if you are gaining weight. (that last part was my attempt at humor) Below are some links that will tell you more.

     https://www.space.com/37572-jeff-bezos-trillion-people-solar-system.html
     http://www.zdnet.com/article/bezos-move-spurs-20b-of-growth-in-logistics-robotics/
     https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/02/jeff-bezos-worlds-richest-man-bill-gates

Elon Musk-----With a real time net worth of only $15.7 billion as of July 24th he trails far behind Bezos and Zuckerberg in the area of wealth but rivals them when it comes to getting media coverage. Elon Musk is one of those iconic figures the world occasionally conjures up to wow and entertain the masses as he tries to redefine transportation on earth and in space. As media generated symbols of success go he ranks up there with the best of them. Much of the aura that surrounds Musk comes from his success at PayPal. Musk co-founded X.com., an online financial service and e-mail payment company. With his youthful looks and forward thinking the media latched on to Musk and propelled him into being viewed as a visionary and wonder-boy that turns everything he touches to gold.

Elon Musk A Man Of Big And Bold Ideas

When talking about the CEO of Tesla Motors, Bloomberg News almost always says "Billionaire Elon Musk", this happens so often that many people probably think his first name is "Billionaire". As to the source of his success, it seems Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The Times. Elon Musk's latest bout of attention occurred a few days ago when he said he has been given “verbal” government approval to build the world’s longest tunnel for an ultra-high-speed train line to connect New York to Washington. What "verbal approval" means and a lack of details combined with many government officials saying they didn't know what he was talking about left many people bewildered. Below are some links that will tell you more.

 http://www.businessinsider.com/why-elon-musk-always-talks-down-the-price-of-tesla-stock
 https://www.inc.com/julian-hayes-ii/elon-musk-and-michael-jordan-can-teach-you-to-be-s.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-20/musk-claims-u-s-approval-for-world-s-biggest-tunnel
https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/

Mark Zuckerberg-----While a bit less "flashy" Zuckerberg computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Facebook, seems to rank higher among young people than the other two. Zuckerberg was a billionaire by the age of 23 and has survived several legal battles. His first popular site breached security and violated privacy and he has been accused of intellectual theft, blasphemy, and failure to uphold a contract. His longest-running legal battle was with twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss who claimed that Zuckerberg had stolen their idea for Facebook. Currently, the Facebook CEO is traveling throughout the United States to fulfill his 2017 “personal challenge” to “learn about people’s hopes and challenges” this has attracted a great deal of attention and sent rumors flying and created speculation that he might be considering running for President. During his travels we have seen him drive a tractor, meet with recovering heroin addicts, don a hard hat and speak out against the staggering wealth inequality that his personal fortune so clearly represents.

Views Vary As To The True Character Of Zuckerberg

Some people might be happy to stop at being the founder and chief of one of the world’s biggest tech companies while still in their early 30s. Not Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook has spent the last couple of years casting himself in various guises. First, global philanthropist: he and his wife last year pledged to invest $3bn over 10 years in order to eradicate global disease, however, some detractors point out this is a very small part of his wealth and this is being done as the cafeteria workers at his company struggle to make ends meet. Zuckerberg recently revised the mission statement for Facebook, at his company's first Communities Summit in Chicago he said Facebook looks to move beyond only connecting individual "friends" in order to bring more groups of people together "to build community."

While Mark Zuckerberg criticizes the state for failing to build adequate infrastructure for Silicon Valley workers it has been pointed out that perhaps the US government, like those elsewhere cannot afford infrastructure because of the huge lengths companies like Facebook, go to in order to avoid paying the taxes that needed to pay for that infrastructure?  Last week from Alaska. Zuckerberg praised the idea of a universal basic income, an unconditional income paid by government to all citizens, regardless of whether or not they’re in work. This brings up the question of whether Zuckerberg has the right to pronounce what the welfare state should look like at the same time Facebook takes very aggressive measures to minimize its tax burden, some people think not, and to those people, the term "hypocrite" quickly springs to mind. Below are some links that will tell you more about Mark Zuckerberg.

http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Mark+Zuckerberg&qpvt=Mark+Zuckerberg&FORM=EWRE
http://fortune.com/2017/06/22/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-mission-groups/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/mark-zuckerberg
http://celebritybox.info/10-facts-about-mark-zuckerberg/related/
 http://www.newsweek.com/trump-mark-zuckerberg-2020-election-640288

It should be pointed out that it is not just Facebook other global tech giants such as Amazon and Google are also notorious for exploiting every loophole to get out of paying their fair share of tax. As noted before other companies such as Tesla live on the government tit. I'm not so much jealous or envious of this trio as I am dubious of any claims they might make about how their goal is to give back and better society rather than increase their power and wealth. All of them at times come across as a bit arrogant but more important are the motives behind the messages they constantly put before us.

This article has grown far longer than I originally planned because doing my research I discovered a great deal more "in my face" information than anticipated, simply put, these guys are everywhere with their reach extending far beyond that of any rock-star. I have thrown a great deal of information out that does not paint a flattering picture of these three icons of society but it is up to you to determine their real character. Over the decades a number of high-flyers have come and gone, men like Ted Turner who once appeared ready to conquer the world are now looked back upon as merely another agent of change.