Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has announced that he has donated $98.5 million to 32 homeless charities in 23 US states, with each organisation being gifted between $1.25 million – $5 million.
Featured Image VIA
It’s the same amount he gave to similar causes last year – pretty cool right?
Well apparently it’s not good enough for some people because while it’s obviously great that he’s donated all this money to help society’s most vulnerable, many feel that in proportion to Jeff Bezos’s $109 BILLION wealth, the amount he’s donated is tiny.
Here are some of the responses:
If you made $50,000 per year this is the equivalent of giving away $45. pic.twitter.com/yBAeL7ExRV
— Eat The Rich (@EatTheRichPod) November 23, 2019
Jeff Bezos could buy a $150,000 house for every homeless person in America and still have almost $20 BILLION in personal wealth
— Carl Gibson (@crgibs) November 23, 2019
A whopping .09% of his net worth. Thanks so much Jeff.
— punkassbamboo (@punkassbamboo) November 22, 2019
1% tax he’d owe 1.5B
— procint – solidarity #YPJ #YPG (@therepubliccan1) November 23, 2019
98.5 million ain’t that much when you’re on your way to becoming the worlds first trillionaire
— The Boston Woman (@thebostonwoman) November 23, 2019
Even Corbyn had something to say about it:
That’s 0.09% of your net worth.
Just pay your taxes. https://t.co/KEke1NUE8E
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) November 24, 2019
Bit harsh? I mean yeah maybe $98.5 million is peanuts to Jeff Bezos, but it’s a life-changing amount for the charities he’s donated it to and the people it will go towards helping.
Some people on Twitter stuck up for him:
He just donated more than everyone in this thread is likely to earn in their lifetime combined and people are complaining… worry about how much you’ve donated this year first
— Shy.ovo (@ShyonGredley) November 23, 2019
“ The rich should help the poor! “
* rich man helps poor “
“ He only contributed 98 million! That’s nothing! “
— Ahmed (@MyAhmazingLife) November 23, 2019
Y’all find anything to complain about…it’s $98m, how much he make shouldn’t matter
— Tristian Thompson Conscience (@I_C_PoloHorses) November 23, 2019
I don’t get why people are mad at him for donating that much, he doesn’t owe anybody anything. He can do whatever he wants with his money
— Kevin Waves🌊 (@kevSoWavvy) November 23, 2019
Ben Shapiro went IN on Jeremy Corbyn with his take on it – yikes:
It’s always disquieting when career useless people who have accomplished nothing and whose ideas are garbage criticize career useful people responsible for bettering the lives of millions https://t.co/HFSJbP9eie
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 25, 2019
You could say if Bezos and Amazon paid the tax they should be paying on the billions they make then that money could go even further to helping others than an annual donation of around $100m would. But then again would we ever really know how that tax money was spent? It would get funnelled into wars and all kinds of other shit before whatever’s leftover goes to charity. At least we know Bezos gave that full amount to charity personally.
You can make good arguments on either side, but I think we can all agree that Jeff Bezos (or anyone) giving $98.5 million to charity is a good thing regardless of personal wealth. Like one of those Tweets said, when was the last time you gave anything to charity?
For more billionaires, get a load of the mega-developer who put up a massive portrait of himself and his new wife in NYC to make his ex-wife jealous. Now that’s trolling – billionaire style.
