Money, Money, Money... always sunny... in the rich man's world.

This is Jeff Bezos, world's richest man, worth just spare change short of $100 billion, all self made.

He IS Amazon, Zapos, Audibooks, etc. and also The Washington Post newspaper among other incredible things now and to come.

Amazon, which he started in 1996, is valued at about $1 trillion (that's $999 billion, 999 million, 999 thousand, 999 hundred and 99 cents... plus a penny) and  employs 600,000 people. He's pretty big... and impressive too.

Just recently Amazon expanded its Seattle headquarters to New York City's Bronx, Arlington Virginia and Nashville after hosting a one year bidding frenzy among 238 cities in the U.S, Canada and Mexico that want in on the action. Yeah, they picked three locations instead of one... more incentives and more opportunities opened for the giant, I suppose.

Cities went crazy trying to lure the still growing giant, offering everything from free zoo tickets (true) to billions of dollars in incentives and other crazy things to lure the giant plum.

"CHOOSE ME! CHOOSE ME!" they all cried.

In  the end, Amazon's winning choices brought $5 billion in tax incentives from the "winners" with a few more bucks down the line in various other ways. All this is to be generated in lieu of taxing the giant... and shorting the revenue expectations of the municipalities who need money to fund education, repair subway systems and roads or other trivial things municipalities need to keep life flowing, especially now that each of the three new headquarters will house up to 25,000 employees.

Money talks. When you have money people, cities, government want to throw more money your way, whether you need it or not.  For the rich and very rich, it's the game.

What this will mean for the people in those "winning" locations is not yet known, but for sure, growth will be a challenge to their way of life, cost of living and convenience. Best answer: We'll see.

The theory, of course is that Amazon will bring more jobs, more people and more revenue, which it will. But how will that play out for the common folk as lifestyles will be dramatically changed.

So the question: Why chase Amazon with dollars when Amazon needs them more than they need Amazon? It's an upside-down look at how the moneyed work the system as we fall into line.

Disclaimer: There is nothing wrong with being rich per se. It is amazing that the tech world has so dynamically changed our world and a great many of the top one-percent have earned their way to the top. But giving the richest of the rich "the farm" just doesn't seem like the way it should work. I suppose though, you can't catch a big one if you don't use bait.

Remember, It IS Nuts out there.

Now for fun, hum along with one of ABBA's best songs, the one that gave this post it's name:

 

Agnatha, Benny,Anni-Frid, Bjorn

Money, Money, Money

I work all night, I work all day, to pay the bills I have to pay

Ain't it sad
And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me
That's too bad
In my dreams I have a plan
If I got me a wealthy man
I wouldn't have to work at all, I'd fool around and have a ball

Money, money, money

Must be funny
In the rich man's world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man's world
Aha aha
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It's a rich man's world
It's a rich man's world

A man like that is hard to find but I can't get him off my mind
Ain't it sad
And if he happens to be free I bet he wouldn't fancy me
That's too bad
So I must leave, I'll have to go
To Las Vegas or Monaco
And win a fortune in a game, my life will never be the same

Money, money,…