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Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, is thought to be worth in excess of $150 billion – built on the success of Amazon, the world’s largest multinational. Now he wants to ‘give something back’, and has pledged to create a $2 billion (£1.5 billion) ‘Day One Fund’ to pay for a network of pre-schools and help tackle homelessness in America.
It is hard not to be cynical about such an initiative, not least because it comes on the back of a deluge of criticism directed at Amazon for its aggressive tax avoidance and exploitative treatment of warehouse workers. Bezos’ generosity looks an awful lot like an attempt to distract from those brand-damaging facts.
It is also an exercise of power, as philanthropy often is. Some philanthropists, such as Microsoft chief Bill Gates, seem genuinely to want to make a difference in the world. Others, however, are demonstrating that they have the power to dole out money on a whim – Bezos is the only American among the world’s five richest people to not join the Giving Pledge.
This attitude to philanthropy was summed up well by the American industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who viewed the “man of wealth” as “the sole agent and trustee for his poorer brethren.” The philanthropist, he went on, should use “his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer” to help the poor and needy because he is able to do so “better than they would or could do for themselves”.
Grasp this pseudo-paternalistic view of humanity and you begin to understand how the super-rich are able to rationalise their tax avoidance and reconcile it with care in the community. Men like Jeff Bezos view it as their job, rather than the job of the democratic state, to distribute their vast riches. In pledging a fraction of his wealth to assist the poor and needy, Bezos is flaunting the power that only unimaginable riches can bring – the power to dodge the full force of the tax man, dole money out on a whim and be applauded for it as a munificent philanthropist.
There is particular effrontery in adopting a lofty philanthropic air when you can’t seem to find the money to make life bearable for workers in your warehouses. I have written many times about my experiences working in an Amazon warehouse back in 2016. Workers were urinating in bottles because they were afraid to take toilet breaks (a recent survey by Organise found that 74% of Amazon warehouse workers in England were scared to go to the toilet because of productivity targets), and disciplinaries were given out by management for taking sick days, regardless of whether they have a doctors note. The agencies Amazon used to employ workers in the warehouse frequently underpaid people – one young woman I interviewed was paid 62p an hour by one such agency, and it took six weeks for her to claw back the money she had earned.
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