• dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
    981·
    2 days ago

    Venice? Wow, that’s actually kind of on-the-nose for a show of excessive wealth.

    https://historywalksvenice.com/article/early-venice/why-did-venice-get-rich/

    TL;DR: Venice exists in its current form (canal city on an ever sinking atoll) not because of climate change, and not because of some fishing village put their backs into it for hundreds of years, but because of money. LOTS, and lots of money from a shipping/trade boom a very long time ago.

    The fact that Bezos built his obscene wealth on shipping and international commerce, just makes this even more appropriate in a gross kind of way. Like he’s deliberately connecting himself to Venice’s history, and everything that implies.

    • GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.socialEnglish
      341·
      2 days ago

      Talk about a gross oversimplification. Venice grew out of mosquito infested lagoon due to necessity. The Venetian people were driven into the lagoon multiple times over centuries as a means of protection from Germanic invasions in the 7th century. They capitalized on shipping and trade just like any other population would do and used those riches to make their citizens lives better. What would you have expected them to do? Turn away from the money spice trading and Mediterranean shipping traffic brought them because it would make them too rich? Because again, they were a people used to fleeing into a mosquito infested lagoon when their farming population was invaded by multiple armies.

      For that reason, comparing an entire cultural population like Venice to a singular person is a false equivalency. Bezos hasn’t used his shipping fortune to enrich anyone but himself, but at least Venetian royalty built buildings and public spaces for their population.