When I Thought I Couldn’t Despise Jeff Bezos More, Coronavirus Happened.
The global pandemic has reminded me why the Amazon CEO represents everything wrong with the American economy.
--
In the span of just a few weeks, over 30 million people have been forced to file for unemployment due to the economic impact of the coronavirus. While small businesses shut their doors, unemployment websites crash, and a significant number of elected officials seem to think their measly one time checks of $1200 dollars are sufficient to get us through this, there’s no denying that the web of trauma this virus is inflicting only seems to grow wider and more elaborate by the day. But of course, there are a handful of people and companies that are thriving under these devastating circumstances, and unsurprisingly the CEO of Amazon happens to be one of them.
Just when I thought I couldn’t despise Jeff Bezos more than I already do I stumbled across a Bloomberg article, detailing how the global pandemic has affected the wealth of some of the world’s richest individuals and families.
In it Sophie Alexander, Tom Maloney, and Tom Metcalf write:
“…Leading the group is Bezos, who has added almost $24 billion to his fortune in 2020, as well as MacKenzie Bezos, who was left with a 4% stake in Amazon as part of the couple’s recent divorce settlement. Her net worth has climbed $8.2 billion to $45.3 billion, and she’s now №18 on the Bloomberg wealth ranking, ahead of Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest person, and Mexico’s Carlos Slim…”
At a moment when there are countless people across the country lining up for food banks, wondering where their next meal is going to come from, the CEO of one of the most profitable companies on earth that doesn’t pay a penny in profits added $24 billion dollars on top of his astronomical wealth. $24 billion dollars richer at a time when his workers are being forced to organize a strike in order to have their their basic demands met for health and protection in the midst of a global pandemic.
It should go without saying that this is not sustainable.
Jeff Bezos did not work $24 billion dollars harder than the employees coming to work every single day in to the…
