This is an updated version of a post from 2019
A free society driven by Capitalism, and which creates billionaires, is a moral society. In fact, the presence of billionaires in a Capitalist society is a direct measure of that society’s morality, by virtue of the global "goodness" it creates.
A command society driven by Socialism also creates billionaires. The presence of billionaires in a Socialist society is a direct measure of that society’s immorality, by virtue of the tyranny, and hardship it creates.
To explain by example, let’s focus on today’s “world’s richest person,” Jeff Bezos, founder and former CEO of Amazon. A Forbes article from May of 2021 estimates his Amazon wealth at approximately $191 billion dollars. Not bad for a guy that started out selling books.
Amazon is a 27 year old company (relatively young) and employs over 1.3 million workers. If you click this link, you’ll see that Amazon profits roughly 6.6% on revenue of about $443 billion dollars.
Why provide these statistics? I don’t know how much more wealth Jeff Bezos has beyond the $191 billion. However, even if it’s $10 billion in cash stuffed in a mattress, that still means over 90% of his wealth is in Amazon stock, SERVING the rest of the world!
It should be self evident how the existence of Amazon, and the genius of Jeff Bezos, SERVES billions of people. The morality of Mr. Bezos’ contributions derived from his genius and great wealth is demonstrated by the delivery of nearly every Amazon package with a product that serves its receiving consumer.
Even if Jeff Bezos were somehow able to miraculously sell ALL his stock $191 billion in cash (for his mattress), the investors that purchased the stock would have placed THEIR money in the service of others, by owning their respective pieces of Amazon. As a side note, billionaires typically don’t liquidate to stuff mattresses or buy $191 billion dollars worth of caviar. Many become great philanthropists like Bill Gates and John D. Rockefeller to name only two. The portrayal of Jeff Bezos can be replicated in similar stories about Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson, and countless other entrepreneurs, investors, and Capitalists.
On the anti-Capitalist side, let’s look at other well known Socialist created billionaires, which all happen to be dead ex-dictators of Socialist regimes, such as Hugo Chavez, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi and Fidel Castro. Does anyone want to hold up Venezuela, Iraq, Libya or Cuba as moral societies under these Socialist dictators?
As in the Jeff Bezos example, the vast majority of the wealth of America’s super-wealthy is in the service of the citizens of the world in scenarios similar to what was described with Amazon.
As many countries of the world lurch further Left (including the U.S.), let’s not let them self-anoint as caretakers of the moral high ground, especially when any attempt on their part to do so is a BIG LIE! Popularity and shallow audacity will lose to truth that is trumpeted loudly, proudly and relentlessly!
Michael Malgeri is the creator of the “Johnny Profit” series of children’s books, which teaches young people about Capitalism. He co-founder of the #ROCKME movement, a network of emerging youth clubs that believe in the "Rewards Of Capitalism:Knowledge, MORALITY, Empowerment."
He’s also involved in projects that spread Capitalist ideas to the young people of Africa. Please visit his website at www.Kids4biz.com