Amazon baldking Jeff Bezos added $13 billion to his net worth earlier this week, quite simply a stupid amount of wealth for just one person to acquire in one day — billionaire chief exec or otherwise.
And so, one Twitter account is hilariously posing a very poignant question: has Jeff Bezos decided to end world hunger?
@HasBezosDecided’s bio notes a report from the Institute of Food Policy Research Institute that found that solving world hunger by 2030 would cost $11 billion in extra spending each year.
Every day, the account confirms whether Bezos has bothered to contribute what represents a small fraction of his fortune to that goal. After all, he just added $2 billion more than that to his net portfolio in a single fucking day.
Assets like Amazon stocks can be exchanged for cash
As one might expect, argument boils underneath @HasBezosDecided’s tweets. While some make the “rich people are actually poor” argument, others are quick to join in on the fun.
Even free market sycophants must see the absurdity of it all: Bezos was already by far the world’s richest person before Monday, and he now has a $178 billion personal fortune that the media has noted exceeds the market values of some of the world’s most prominent brands like McDonald’s and Nike.
Bezos’ wealth even puts oil behemoth Exxon Mobil’s total market value to shame.
One portfolio manager from investment fund RWC Partners Equity Income told The Guardian that Amazon’s shares have returned 199,908% since its original listing way back in 1997, making it “a manmade creation that has so far defied the laws of finance.”
And while The Guardian noted that Bezos has indeed given $2 billion to the Bezos Day One Fund, which works to address homelessness and boost education for children of low-income families, that contribution represented little more than 1% of his overall wealth.
In any case, if you were wondering if Bezos solved world hunger today: Nope. Not yet. Not tomorrow either. Sad.
Published July 24, 2020 — 15:57 UTC
David Canellis
July 24, 2020 — 15:57 UTC
