Bernie Sanders Rallies Against ‘Greed’ of Billionaires Like Jeff Bezos

In an email sent out Wednesday to supporters, Sen. Bernie Sanders called out members of the billionaire class for enriching themselves at others’ expense. In the same gesture, he called on Americans to push back against their exploitation of the power their economic positions afford them—and of the labor force that sustains it.

And Sanders named names. Specifically, the Vermont senator lashed out at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who has recently made headlines about his skyrocketing executive compensation—in 10 seconds, Bezos makes more than the median annual salary for Amazon employees—as well as about Bezos’ comments about looking to space for new ways to spend his vast wealth.

Echoing themes picked up by other commentators, Sanders pointed out that there are many more necessary and obvious places where Bezos could channel his funds. “Instead of attempting to explore Mars or go to the moon,” Sanders wrote, “how about Jeff Bezos pays his workers a living wage?”

This wasn’t the first time Bezos has inspired Sanders to vent against what he has characterized, in a refrain he pushed during his 2016 presidential campaign, as a “rigged economy.” Wednesday’s blast made explicit how much Amazon’s inadequate wages wind up costing the rest of the country in the long run. As “thousands of Amazon employees are forced to rely on food stamps, Medicaid and public housing because their wages are too low,” Sanders wrote, taxpayers are forced to pick up the bill. “I don’t believe that ordinary Americans should be subsidizing the wealthiest person in the world because he pays his employees inadequate wages,” he said.

Though Bezos didn’t respond to the finer points (or any points, for that matter) of the legislator’s critique, Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer backed Sanders up:

The entire statement is a powerful indictment of wealth inequality and the exploitation of workers from one of our most respected political leaders. Most of us, myself included, underestimate the unprecedented concentration of power in a few hands in recent years. It is a much ignored labor story of rank exploitation of workers that gives the lie to holding immigrant labor responsible.

Read Sanders’ petition in full below:

I want to ask you to clear your mind for a moment and count to 10.

1…

2…

3…

4…

5…

6…

7…

8…

9…

10…

In those 10 seconds, Jeff Bezos, the owner and founder of Amazon, made more money than the median employee of Amazon makes in an entire year. An entire year.

Think about that.

Think about how hard that family member has to work for an entire year, the days she or he goes into work sick, or has a sick child, or struggles to buy school supplies or Christmas presents, to make what one man makes in 10 seconds.

According to Time magazine, from January 1 through May 1 of this year, Jeff Bezos saw his wealth increase by $275 million every single day for a total increase in wealth of $33 billion in a four-month period.

Meanwhile, thousands of Amazon employees are forced to rely on food stamps, Medicaid and public housing because their wages are too low. And guess who pays for that? You do. Frankly, I don’t believe that ordinary Americans should be subsidizing the wealthiest person in the world because he pays his employees inadequate wages.

But it gets remarkably more ridiculous: Jeff Bezos has so much money that he says the only way he could possibly spend it all is on space travel.

Space travel. Have you ever heard of such a thing? It is absolutely absurd.

Well here is a radical idea: Instead of attempting to explore Mars or go to the moon, how about Jeff Bezos pays his workers a living wage? How about he improves the working conditions at Amazon warehouses across the country so people stop dying on the job? He can no doubt do that and have billions of dollars left over to spend on anything he wants.

So today, whether or not you use Amazon, I want to ask you to join me in sending a message to Jeff Bezos:

Sign my petition to Jeff Bezos: It is long past time you start to pay your workers a living wage and improve working conditions at Amazon warehouses all across the country. He needs to know that you are aware of his company’s greed, which seems to have no end.

Now, I have never understood how someone could have hundreds of billions of dollars and feel the desperate need for even more. I would think that, with the amount of money he has, Jeff Bezos might just be able to get by.

And I think there is something weird and wrong with people who have that much and are willing to step over working people, many with families and young children, in order to get more and more.

But this is not just about the greed of one man. These are policy failures as well.

Last year, Amazon made $5.6 billion in profits and did not pay one penny in federal income taxes. The Trump tax cuts rewarded Amazon with almost $1 billion more. And city after city is offering additional tax breaks, mostly in secret, for the right to host Amazon’s second corporate headquarters.

In my view, a nation cannot survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little. Millions of people across this country struggle to put bread on the table and are one paycheck away from economic devastation, and the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good.

It has got to stop.

But that starts with all of us making our voices heard and being clear — loudly and directly — that this kind of greed is intolerable, and it must end. And that starts with you:

Sign my petition to Jeff Bezos: It is long past time you start to pay your workers a living wage and improve working conditions at Amazon warehouses all across the country. He needs to know that you are aware of his company’s greed, which seems to have no end.

As Americans, we must ask ourselves one fundamental question, and that is whether or not this is the kind of country and economic culture we are comfortable with.

I am not. And I don’t believe you are either.

Thank you for making your voice heard.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders