Remember when I said that “top 26 most wealthy people in the world held as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population”? Oh yeah! It was eight days ago. And according to Oxfam, those 26 people have added approximately 20 billion in wealth since that post. Meanwhile, in the same period of time, evictions brought on by the massive economic downturn since 2020 have resulted in countless more American families losing their homes. But instead of focussing on this crisis, what is the mainstream media focussing on? A phallic measuring contest between billionaires.

By that, I mean the recent space race between notorious billionaires Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson. No, the race is not to merely get to space, it is a contest to see who can profit the most through making recreational space travel available to the world’s wealthy elites. Jeff Bezos (the second to launch his spacecraft recently after Richard Branson) actually had the audacity to say, “I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this” after returning from his ego-maniac trip. He wants to thank his Amazon employees. The same employees that are forced to work 14-hour days and relieve themselves in plastic water bottles for fear of slowing down their delivery rates. According to an Amazon employee, they would be called by the dispatcher if the delivery van was off-route or stopped for more than 3 minutes. This is just one example of the many that have come forward in recent years regarding how Amazon treats its employees. In fact, Amazon openly admitted to these allegations in recent months, after originally denying the claims. So, Bezos knows that his employees are treated like animals, and still “thanks” them for feeding his giant ego. You know what the employees would actually appreciate as a thank you? Better working conditions like being allowed a regular bathroom break.

Apart from these types of transgressions, the fact remains that wealth is either being wasted or hoarded by billionaires like Bezos. A space race between billionaires does not impact the poorest demographic because they are not employed in that industry nor will they have the wealth to ever afford space travel in their lifetime. Another selfish purchase by Bezos is his $500 million super yacht. Billionaires are increasingly using their wealth to separate themselves from the masses; the proverbial king in his castle separated from his peasants, except he doesn’t even throw out bread for them. According to Forbes, the richest 25 people in the US paid a true tax rate of just 3.4% from 2014 to 2018, compared to the average household with a $70,000 income who paid 14% each of those years. More specifically, Warren Buffet paid an average of 0.10% personal income tax during that period with $125 million in income, while increasing his wealth by $24 billion! This is beyond egregious circumvention of the tax system. And because most politicians are sponsored by these billionaires, the rules never get changed to fix this problem. 

Billionaires are citizens just like anyone else, they just have more wealth. But that wealth should therefore be taxed in a true progressive system. Otherwise, that wealth continues to accumulate and be hoarded away like a gold-lusting dragon and spent on frivolous endeavours and selfish assets. Meanwhile, Amazon employees can barely afford the plastic water bottle they use as a bathroom.