Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky)
In approximately four months, there can be irrevocable changes in our economy, labor market, and wealth inequality. In its reaction to the virus outbreak, the government, whether intentional or not, established winners and losers. Certain online giants, such as Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Zoom, Facebook, and Netflix, were able to do business as usual, while others tagged as nonessential were forced to shut down or significantly reduce their operations. The consequences include 51 million Americans filing for unemployment benefits and large companies, such as JC Penney, Hertz, Neiman Marcus, Pier 1, Brooks Brothers, and J. Crew, filing for bankruptcy protection.
CEOs, executives and large shareholders of the “winners” made fortunes in addition to their existing fortunes. Most families don’t even have a three-month savings emergency fund to get through tough times. People are reported to be unable to make their rent and mortgage payments, at the risk of eviction. The additional unemployment supplement of $ 600 per week, on which beneficiaries heavily depend, will expire on July 31.
On Monday, when millions of unemployed Americans poured their cups of coffee and began looking for work online, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos saw his net worth grow by $ 13 billion. You are not reading this wrong. Yes, it is the largest intraday jump in net worth, according to Bloomberg.
The Guardian He wrote that at the height of the pandemic, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg (his net worth increased by about $ 15 billion in 2020), Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison were collective witnesses to his already incredible increase in wealth by $ 101.7 billion between March 18 and June 17)
Tesla co-founder Elon Musk goes to Joe Rogan’s podcast, drinks some whiskey, eats grass, and declares that he doesn’t care about his “material possessions.” Musk told Rogan that his houses, planes and cars can “wear you out.” The regular guy schtick falls off as he signed a contract that has awarded him billions of dollars. Musk’s net worth has tripled in the past seven months. It is now worth around $ 75 billion. Musk, as reported by Reuters“It qualified Tuesday for an unprecedented $ 2.1 billion payment, its second-biggest jackpot since May from the electric car maker after its massive stock surge.”
Getting rich and a billionaire is great. It is the American way. The United States is one of the few places in the world where you can start with nothing or immigrate from another country and be very successful and wealthy. People, like Bezos, Musk, the founders of Google and Apple (as well as similar titans in the industry), often offer valuable services and products that benefit consumers and make our lives easier and more productive. It is not wealth itself that worries. The fear is that a small group of people now control most of the wealth, power, political connections, and control, while the vast majority of the population simply manages or clings to its fingernails.
Vice reported: “Since the start of the pandemic, income inequality has continued to rise: while the super-rich earn even more money, a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that, ‘Homes in the poorest fifth, as measured by their crisis income: they have been the most affected in terms of income, with a drop in their average family income of around 15% “.
This is not a new phenomenon and we have seen it in the past. CNN He says: “We have seen this happen before, in the recovery from the 2008 economic crisis, which, for most Americans, was never complete. In fact, most American households entered this pandemic with a lingering economic hangover from the 2008 collapse. Only the top 20% of American households had fully recovered the wealth they had before the Great Recession. “It was a different story. for the super rich and “the 400 richest billionaires in the United States: they had fully recovered their wealth in three years.” In a decade, their wealth had increased more than 80%. “
This uneven economy may be the incendiary spark that, in part, created the anger, resentment, and frustration that led to the riots, looting, and mayhem we saw last month and continue to witness in places like Portland, Oregon. . Perhaps it is not a coincidence that we have all seen the appearance of “Karens” and their male counterparts, who are full of uncontrollable hatred and throw fits of anger that can be seen daily on Twitter.
The pandemic led to the creation of a new subclass of workers. These are the people who get overlooked and stock shelves on Amazon, buy our food from supermarkets, deliver packages, drive to Ubers, care for elderly residents in nursing homes, and engage in a variety of others. cheap jobs and lower paying jobs. Those essential jobs put these people in extreme situations, substantially increasing their health risks. Typically, these are dead-end, growthless roles in which they remain trapped.
If this trend continues, the United States could become a medieval and feudal country. We will have an elite oligarchy running things, backed by a clique of the best lawyers, accountants, and managers. At the bottom of the pyramid will be the working class doing all the dirty jobs for low wages, at the cost of personal health risks.
This does not mean that we should take away wealth. Our elected leaders must formulate smart strategies to ensure that the other 99% of Americans have a way forward to lead successful lives for themselves and their children.
