Amazon founder Jeff Bezos donated nearly $100 million to charities battling homelessness, according to ReCode, and he’s taken the unusual step of allowing those charities to control how the money is spent — but his generosity still isn’t enough for leftists, who would rather the government, and not Bezos himself, redistribute his largesse.
Bezos, unlike his fellow Seattle-based tech wizard, Bill Gates, isn’t well known for his philanthropy and, until now, has largely avoided private giving, but he’s looking to change that now that Amazon is running record profits.
To that end, Business Insider reports, Bezos, who recently tied with Gates for the title of America’s richest person, “launched the $2 billion Bezos Day One Fund in September 2018. It currently has two projects: the Day 1 Families Fund, which includes the annual leadership awards given to the 24 charities combatting homelessness; and the Day 1 Academies Fund, which is launching a nonprofit that will eventually open preschools in underserved communities.”
That $100 million could go a long way towards battling the scourge of homelessness, especially now when its desperately needed in places like Seattle, which are dealing with record homelessness that’s beginning to impact the quality of life for city residents who aren’t sleeping rough.
But no matter how much Bezos — or any other billionare, for that matter — gives to charity, it seems leftists aren’t satisified. They’d much rather Bezos give more or, perhaps, that they be allowed to redistribute Bezos’ income, given that they clearly know better how to spend his money.
They tried to make the point on Twitter.
“Jeff Bezos could buy a $150,000 house for every homeless person in America and still have almost $20 BILLION in personal wealth,” one social media “expert” suggested, assuming that it is Bezos’ responsibility to give away his billions.
“A whopping .09% of his net worth. Thanks so much Jeff,” said another.
A handful pointed out how little that charity represents when compared to Bezos’ taxable income, often using fuzzy math — the kind Democratic presidential contenders like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have been using of late — to suggest that Bezos’ ability to give so much is evidence that he should pay more in taxes.
“1% tax he’d owe 1.5B,” one “socialist” Twitter account crowed.
Even committed, socialist leaders got in on the act. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), also vying for the Democratic presidential nomination, tried to slam Bezos through the Walton family, one of his top targets. “The wealth of the billionaire class is almost incomprehensible,” Sanders, a millionaire, tweeted. “The Waltons get $70,000 richer every minute. Jeff Bezos makes $2,489 a second. That is why it is not radical to say that millions of people in this country should not be paid starvation wages.”
Under Bernie Sanders’ taxation plan, released last month, Bezos would lose approximately $1.05 billion per year but that’s fine, Sanders supporters say, because no one needs to be a billionaire.
UK Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn also opined on Bezos’ chosen method of giving: “That’s 0.09% of your net worth,” Corbyn said. “Just pay your taxes.”
Corbyn is apparently alluding to the idea that Amazon doesn’t pay taxes, even though it posts record profits. That idea is outdated — Amazon, at one time, reinvested its profits in expansion, thus posting no actual taxable income, but that has since changed and Amazon claims that it pays all applicable local, state, and Federal taxes as required — but it also presumes that Corbyn, who is a career politician, not a successful corporate magnate, is more trustworthy with money than Bezos.
“Amazon pays all the taxes we are required to pay in the U.S. and every country where we operate, including paying $2.6 billion in corporate tax and reporting $3.4 billion in tax expense over the last three years,” a company spokesperson told CNBC, suggesting that Corbyn was no longer right on his point, regardless.
In truth, its unlikely Bezos could ever meet the threshold socialists require without giving away his entire fortune.