Jeff Bezos: "I want to thank every Amazon employee … because you guys paid for all this."

If the two separate space flights by Bezos and Richard Branson in the last few days should show us anything, it is simply this: We must tax the ultra-wealthy, and we must do it right now.

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

I need to be honest with you, Andra. I'm appalled.

After returning from his multimillion-dollar 10-minute joyride in space earlier this week, Jeff Bezos got laughs and cheers from the gathered crowd when he said, "I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this."¹

How could this man, who gained billions of dollars in personal wealth during the pandemic while millions of American families couldn't afford to keep food on the table, whose company used an army of lobbyists to ensure that special tax breaks for Amazon were built into President Biden's plan to raise corporate taxes, and who deployed fearmongering tactics and lies to prevent Amazon workers from unionizing, joke about how the exploitation of his workers paid to fuel a private space race between billionaires?

If the two separate space flights by Bezos and Richard Branson in the last few days should show us anything, it is simply this: We must tax the ultra-wealthy, and we must do it right now.

And we have to get rid of the Republicans in Congress who are using every trick in the book to protect their billionaire donors while throwing the rest of us to the wolves.

That's why MoveOn is preparing to launch a huge television ad campaign targeting Republican senators who are up for re-election—like Ron Johnson and Marco Rubio—to remind their constituents that instead of working for the people, the GOP is working for Jeff Bezos, Rupert Murdoch, and corporations that exploit workers for their own profit.

Will you chip in $8 a month to help get these ads on the air, keep them running for as long as it takes, and defeat the GOP in 2022?

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

Just days before Bezos launched into space, a sobering new report was released showing that a full-time worker would need to make at least $24.90 an hour to afford rent for a two-bedroom apartment in any state in the country. Which means that many of those workers who paid to send Jeff to space can't afford to pay for housing with the paycheck they receive from Amazon.²

Make no mistake: We are living in a Second Gilded Age, where America's wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few billionaires who are using their riches to take joy rides to space while thousands of Americans sleep on the streets and millions more, especially people of color, ration their medication just to get by. It's far past time to raise the federal minimum wage and implement a wealth tax to rein in this rampant inequality.

If Democrats are able to hold on to or expand their majority in the Senate in 2022, we can pass legislation to undo the trillion-dollar tax scam passed under the Trump administration, close the loopholes that companies like Amazon use to shirk their responsibilities, and ensure that billionaires and the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share.

Getting this message out to voters now will help build the movement we need as we head into 2022. Will you chip in $8 a month to help MoveOn run television ads in critical Senate states and win in 2022?

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

I will never forget what it felt like to watch the United States launch astronauts into space, or the pride I felt when Neil Armstrong took that "one small step for a man." The promise and possibility for our future seemed endless.

I still believe in that possibility, and I want to see our government invest in NASA and the space program for generations to come.

Those critical programs that advance scientific knowledge cannot be replaced by billionaires running luxury private trips to space for those who can afford the tickets and no one else.

We must put a stop to the increasing wealth gap and unbridled greed by the few. It's time to tax the rich. Will you help by chipping in $8 a month to MoveOn, Andra?

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

Thanks for all you do.

–Robert Reich

Sources:

1. Tweet by MSNBC, July 20, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/154847?t=8&akid=302623%2E53570607%2Eokyba2

2. "Minimum wage workers can't afford rent anywhere in America," CNN, July 15, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/154848?t=10&akid=302623%2E53570607%2Eokyba2

Want to support MoveOn's work? The GOP is launching an all-out campaign to take down the Democratic majority in Congress and reinstall Mitch McConnell as Senate majority leader in 2022. To defeat the GOP, MoveOn is going all-in with TV ads, a nationwide grassroots organizing campaign, and more.

Will you chip in to power our effort to defeat McConnell and the GOP in 2022?

Yes, I'll chip in $8 a month.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

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