Jeff Bezos’ thanking of Amazon customers and employees for making his historic space flight possible didn’t faze the greedy haters: Leading lefties still blasted him, claiming he’s ignoring people on Earth and demanding he pay his “fair share” of taxes.
“Am I supposed to be impressed that a billionaire went to space while he’s paid zero in federal income taxes some years and the workers at his company struggle?” snarked socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) chimed in.
In fact, Bezos has given at least $200 million to charity. From 2006 to 2018, he paid more than $100 million a year in taxes. Amazon provides jobs for a whopping 800,000 people, paying a minimum of $15 an hour, more than twice the $7.25 federal minimum.
Bezos’ company also lets millions of people shop from home — a huge boon during the lockdowns. Its cloud-computing and other services keep much of the economy humming.
Yet the redistributionist left doesn’t care what Bezos (or anyone else) does for their money; if it’s a large amount, they want to swipe it.
Sorry: People who produce huge benefits for mankind (Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs) deserve their billions — and the right to spend it however they wish.
And Bezos’ space endeavors, along with those of competing gazillionaires, offer humanity even more boons: As he says, “This is about building a road to space so that future generations can do incredible things in space.” The technological spinoffs could produce yet more miracles, as well.
But the only benefits the lefties can think of are the ones they imagine they could produce if they only get their hands on enough of other people’s money. If you prefer not to live in the Stone Age, ignore them.