He is the founder of Amazon which has changed the way the world shops. He is Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world (except when he isn't). While really rich guys are envied, admired, celebrated, feted and imitated, Bezos seems to evoke different reactions. While people do seem to envy him, they don’t seem to like him too much. He recently was in the news for his plans to go into space. Here’s what happened next:
Recently, Bezos announced plans to travel to space; to the Kármán Line. He and his brother Mark along with some others will travel up 100 kilometres above the earth’s surface via the Blue Origin rocket. Shortly after this made news, a petition was started online to prevent his return to earth. The petition says, “Billionaire's (sic) should not exist...on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter they should stay there.”
This is clearly a tongue-in-cheek petition and refers to The Proletariat (the Marxist term for the working-class collective). The petition has over 72K signatures and is closing in on 75K signatures, which would make this one of the top-signed petitions on the change.org platform. For someone whose company employs 1.2 million people and makes all of our lives easier, this guy is not liked much. He gets a lot of hate on social media and seems to be the whipping boy for those who hate the capitalist system on the whole.
The story of Jeff Bezos is a true rags-to-riches story: it started with him working at a Mac Donald's at age 16 and then having some excellent business ideas. What began with the unique one of selling books online grew to be the behemoth we all know today: amazon.com. Bezos admits to being obsessively customer-centric in his approach rather than focusing on the competition. Anyone who has called in to amazon customer service has witnessed the difference – actually being able to speak to a person, quickly; a person who is polite, knowledgeable and helpful. Now during the lockdown, Amazon has literally been a lifeline for many; home delivering all the stuff that we couldn’t go out to buy. He has also been a philanthropist; pledging vast sums to education, climate change, world hunger and more. So people cannot accuse him of being a heartless capitalist monster merely filling his own coffers.
And yet, people seem to really dislike the man. While people like Elon Musk and Bill Gates have their detractors, they also have their own devoted following. Somehow it’s different with Bezos. He is often reviled on social media and is seen to stand for all that is wrong with the world; personally responsible for world poverty. He is perceived as being motivated by nothing except the Profit Motive and his obscene wealth has somehow not endeared him to people – even those that directly benefit from him.
The real problem is the contrast between the way that Jeff Bezos lives, and the way that most of his employees live. There is the fact that Amazon workers are known to be worked very hard and even denied bathroom breaks. The working conditions are known to be stressful and difficult. There are always comparisons drawn between the personal wealth of Bezos and the lack of it among the employees. This may not be not wholly logical, but it does colour perceptions. While he is seen to be willing to contribute to various charities, he has not responded to suggestions that workers’ wages be increased.
There is also the perception that by various different means, Bezos avoids paying taxes. While this may be done in a perfectly legal way, there is no doubt that this pinches people – especially when they themselves have no way to avoid their taxes. Bezos’s business model is seen to have destroyed many other small businesses and as guilty of having created a global monopoly. During the pandemic, as others were becoming poorer, he was just getting richer.
It is the sheer contrast between the personal wealth of Bezos and the meagre-seeming incomes of his employees, that seems to bother people the most. There are of course many others all over the world – similarly rich individuals with employees who barely manage to make ends meet. But they are not so hated on. Perhaps some of them are more exploitative than Bezos – but maybe they aren't as well known? Or maybe it’s his relatively unemotional style of speaking, his divorce or his bald head that people dislike? The bottom line is – people dislike Jeff Bezos enough to send him into space and wish for him never to return. That can't be much fun - even if one is the richest individual on the planet.
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