Jeff Bezos is 56 years previous, divorced, and has three sons and a daughter. Throughout highschool, he labored at McDonald’s as line prepare dinner and was the valedictorian of his senior class. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton College with a Bachelor of Science diploma in electrical engineering and pc science.
After just a few years within the workforce, Bezos stop his job to create a web based bookstore. In 1994, with $300,000 borrowed from his mother and father, Bezos began Amazon in his storage. Quick ahead to 2020. Along with Amazon, Bezos owns The Washington Put up, Zappos, Complete Meals, an area exploration firm referred to as Blue Origin, and over a dozen different corporations.
In late July, simply days earlier than federal unemployment advantages expired, Bezos’ web value jumped $13 billion in at some point, a report for the most important improve for a person. That’s greater than four,000 instances the quantity earned on common by Individuals over their lifetime. If Bezos punched the clock, he could be incomes roughly $150,000 per minute, which equates to round $2,489 per second. This quantity of $2,489 is greater than twice what the common American employee earns in a single week. Bezos’ whole web value is at present estimated at about $188 billion.
Through the pandemic, Amazon grew even quicker than earlier than as a result of as individuals stayed house, they did extra of their purchasing on-line. Now, Amazon vehicles appear to be on the roads greater than FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. Amazon employs over 600,000 individuals within the U.S. and subsequent summer time, a brand new Amazon success heart will open close to the Colorado Springs Airport. The four-story constructing will turn into Amazon’s largest success heart and can make use of over 1,000 employees. Amazon plans to pay $15/hour for full-time employees and since Colorado’s minimal wage is $11.10/hour, positions will seemingly fill rapidly.
As nationwide unemployment rises, there was a rise within the fee of condo evictions and residential foreclosures. The Aspen Institute estimates that by October, one in 5 American renters may face eviction. In April, Labor Division figures indicated that fewer than half of all Black Individuals were employed, the bottom fee in 40 years.
A good higher disparity is illustrated in statistics about homeownership in America. In line with Time journal, within the first quarter of 2020, 74% of white individuals owned their houses in contrast with solely 44% of Black individuals. Discriminatory practices in homebuying and mortgage financing have contributed to this disparity. In line with one research, in 2016 the median Black family wealth was simply over $13,000 whereas the median white family wealth was almost $150,000. For the reason that pandemic started, this inequality has turn into shockingly obvious within the rise of homelessness and has revealed startling variations in individuals’s means to resist the devastating financial results. Earnings inequality, social injustice, racial discrimination and a mess of issues face our nation on a higher scale than ever earlier than.
Think about if Bezos’ staggering wealth was put to good use to sort out these issues.
Bezos has been criticized for not donating extra of his wealth than lots of the world’s richest people, so let’s have a look at his monitor report. He started in 2011 with a $10 million donation to ascertain the Bezos Middle for Innovation on the Museum of Historical past & Trade in Seattle. He gave $15 million to the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and $2.5 million to Washington United for Marriage which spearheaded same-sex marriage laws. Bezos gave $500,000 to WorldReader, which supplies e-books and e-readers to kids in underdeveloped international locations, and $1 million to Mary’s Place, a company offering providers to the homeless.
As Bezos elevated his philanthropic efforts, he gave $33 million to TheDream.Us which supplies school scholarships to immigrants and $10 million to WithHonor, a PAC for army veterans working for Congressional workplaces. In 2018, Bezos began the Bezos Day One Fund with $97 million for academic applications for homeless kids after which donated $98.5 million to organizations in 32 states which give attention to shelter and assist for households. Subsequent, he earmarked $10 billion for local weather change efforts by way of the brand new Bezos Earth Fund. We’ll see what he does sooner or later.
If I labored as Bezos’ Director of Philanthropic Giving, I would give attention to primary wants like meals and clear water. An estimated one in seven individuals go to mattress hungry every evening. Since Complete Meals is a part of the Bezos empire, we may be sure that each rural city and metropolis within the nation has a grocery retailer (or Complete Meals) inside an affordable distance and eradicate meals deserts. We may cut back costs and supply free supply to the aged. We may be sure that each faculty has sufficient meals to offer breakfast and lunch in addition to meals for teenagers to take house to their households. We may absolutely fund meals banks and group facilities. We may faucet into group leaders throughout the nation and fund the very best approaches to reasonably priced housing. There could be beneficiant grants to companies that serve the homeless equivalent to The Place (previously City Peak), Marian Home, and the Salvation Military shelters.
We might spearhead a nationwide initiative to finish homelessness. This initiative may embrace methods and infrastructure to make sure entry to reasonably priced healthcare together with psychological well being providers and household planning applications. Hundreds of psychological well being professionals could be skilled and new group clinics could be constructed. With different funds from the Bezos fortune, we may ramp up job coaching applications, after-school care and tutoring, and supply hundreds of thousands of school scholarships. In my creativeness, that’s what the longer term may appear like. If solely I had Jeff Bezos’ fortune in my fingers.
Julie Richman is a contract author, challenge supervisor and advisor. She and her household have lived on Colorado Springs’ northeast aspect for 21 years. Contact Julie with feedback or concepts for her column at woodmennotes@pikespeaknewspapers.com.
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