Originally publish on July 23, 2021 by Fabian Augustus
There may be a much more complicated answer as studies like the following suggests https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/109/11/4086.full.pdf but it seems as if there is no longer the need for an official study as more and more people fall into poverty as the wealth of the world flows in one direction … to the top.
Jeff Bezos
While Jeff Bezos zooms out of our atmosphere in a rocket that was partially funded by our tax dollars, many people fail to realize that he is guilty of the following:
Made more money than anyone else, but paid less as a percentage in his income in taxes than almost everyone else in America. https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/companies/article/jeff-bezos-paid-zero-taxes-in-two-years-space-trip-prompts-calls-for-wealth-tax-on-ultra-rich/788185
Asked for suggestions as what charities to which he should donate, while being guilty of the following:
Paying wages on which few could live. https://www.ibtimes.com/amazoncoms-workers-are-low-paid-overworked-unhappy-new-employee-model-internet-age-1514780
Stationing paramedics outside of Amazon warehouses instead of installing air condition for those employees who suffered from heat stroke.
Allowed for such dire working conditions that forced workers to pee in bottles and poop in bags to avoid losing income or their jobs.
Fired employees for warning people of the possible exposure to COVID-19 from employees who were known to have contracted the virus. https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/02/why-amazon-is-fighting-so-hard-to-stop-warehouse-workers-from-unionizing.html
sociopathic adjective so·cio·path·ic|\ˌsō-sē-ə-ˈpath-ik,ˌsō-sh(ē-)ə-\ Medical Definition of sociopathic :of, relating to, or characterized by asocial or antisocial behavior or an antisocial personality Bill Gates Bill’s response to a Pandemic The best practice to slow down or end a pandemic like COVID-19 would be to share all medical information, findings or vaccines. Medical information can help mitigate the worst impacts of the virus, while vaccines can stop the deaths that would be cause by contraction of the virus, if shared with all nations (including poor ones), it could also prevent the virus from muting, exactly as COVID-19 has into the DELTA variant. This however is not how Bill Gates viewed solutions to the Pandemic. This college dropout thought it best to prevent the sharing of patents for any vaccines and go figure… the virus mutated. https://www.salon.com/2021/04/26/bill-gates-says-no-to-sharing-vaccine-formulas-with-global-poor-to-end-pandemic_partner/ So, why would Gates want to limit access to a life-saving drug? If there was nothing in it for him, why would he not only risk the spread of the virus but the possibility of mutation? If there was something in it for him, that might suggest that Mr. Gates put selfish interests above the safety of the nation, the world and through his own stupidity, his own personal safety. Which ever way one might perceive Gates’ action they could never perceived as smart, wise, just or moral. Bill Gates owns a lot of farmland And then there’s the fact that along with his soon to be ex-wife Melinda, Bill holds more farmland than anyone else in America. Why would he want to control a resource that people need for life? The only answer I could guess at, is that he wants to control people’s lives in a way that few could avoid. Should Bill Gates have so much control over so many people’s lives? If he sought to deny a life-saving medicine, why wouldn’t he deny food to those who are hungry? Warren Buffet Did he contribute to society while earning his billions? No is the simplest answer. He may have been smart in picking winning and losing companies, but him making money did little to nothing to moving society forward. If you look at the number of people who had to be impoverished so Buffet could make his billions, it seems like an awful trade off. The majority of people who worked at the businesses on which Warren bet are most-likely now struggling to live the standard of living they enjoyed ten or twenty years ago. Most Americans are struggling to live the lives they enjoyed ten or twenty years ago. This is due to people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, because their charitable giving doesn’t come close to amount of wealth they hoard. Squeezing every last penny out of the economy leaves fewer and fewer pennies for the rest of us. It leaves us a nation where opioids kills more people every year than the Viet Nam war killed in its entire ten years. While Buffet may or may not have benefited from Oxy Cotin, his immoral views on inequality pushed many American’s over that cliff. If Warren were truly concerned about the harm his excessive wealth is and continues to cause in America, he would have acted more like Charles Fenney, who made nearly 9 billion dollars and gave it all away while still alive. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-54300268 While many will tout the charitable giving of the rich, it makes little to no sense to believe that they should control who is and isn’t deserving of charity. Let them pay their taxes and let the people of our Democracy decide through a series of votes how best to help Americans in need. For the reasons listed above and many more, I wrote my book “Solutions: Enough complaining. Let’s fix America.”, which is as necessary today as it is relevant. Get yours today and see why, even in these times, I am optimistic about the future. If you would like to see viable solutions that our current leaders are failing to put forth, purchase "Solutions..." Solutions for Android devices $0.99 Solutions in paperback (I get the hypocrisy, but where else can you buy anything these days?) $ 16 Solutions for Kindle (I get the hypocrisy, but where else can you buy anything these days?) $10
