Can you work for daddy Bezos and call yourself a socialist?
Who do you think you're Robin Hooding?
I once dated a guy who lectured me over FaceTime for cutting too much off the end of an onion. He called it “wasteful” even though my plan was to use the trimmings for stock.
He was a self-proclaimed environmentalist and socialist who donated monthly to Planned Parenthood and volunteered for two community programs. To reduce his carbon footprint, he used bikes and public transportation in lieu of owning a car, was a vegetarian, and vehemently opposed eating peanut butter containing palm oil. He rejected fast fashion and his favorite author was Octavia Butler.
The irony?
He worked for Blue Origin. (Daddy Bezos’ Big Boy Rocket Company).
“I’m just helping a rich man use his money that we was going to spend anyway.” Eyeroll please!
This thirty-year old man who had a lexicon that required me to Google words mid-conversation really thought he was a modern-day Robinhood, “taking” the riches money to funnel it back into the very community that was disparaged by his employers greed.
You are not Robin Hood if the work you do helps rich people get richer and poor people stay, if not get, poorer.
Although this individual was an exaggerated character1 (but a real one in fact!), his moral views are common amongst Seattle-Metro folk. Many claim to care about the environment despite their padded paychecks coming from companies who heavily contribute to it’s deterioration.
For a moment he had me bamboozled, believing that engineers have it hard. Just like the rest of us, they need to find work that matches their skills in order to make a living. And then I remembered I was talking to someone who got a full ride! for an aerospace! engineering degree and finished it early. If he wanted to, he could accomplish anything. Why did he believe he couldn’t find a better work opportunity? He was saving as much money as possible to buy land for a commune.
Again is favorite author is Octavia Butler.2
Hot take: using one’s income to reinvest in sustainability and community is not inherently progressive. It’s not “using your power”. Donating to social programs is not “social justice” when the exploitation of another social classes labor, health, and safety is what padded your paycheck in the first place. Dismissing the harm caused by the work you do because you use a fraction of your pay check to “give back” perpetuates the idea that it’s okay to engage in systems that force people to be poor in the first place. You may not be the one directly inflicting harm, but you’re choosing to participate and benefit from it to a degree that is completely unnecessary.
Funneling a fraction of your income back to the people that it was taken from does not undo or fix the harm that was done to them. It does not take people out of poverty, when poverty in the U.S. has been created and perpetuated by the very companies you work for.
Can you work for Amazon3 and be a socialist? For the delivery workers who have limited economic opportunities due to markets controlled by the globalized companies that disrupt them, yes. When one’s job opportunities can barely pay the bills, one has no choice but to take what they can get. But for the tech babies who believe they have no other choice, absolutely not. Leaving their jobs would simply cost them a lifestyle change, not safety. A job change would mean potentially living like the rest of the country. Working hard long hours with limited PTO, shitty healthcare, and a few sick days. Heck, many of them have so much money that they could leave their jobs and never have to work a day again.
As our government unravels, I hope we can see our contribution to the rise in power of the folks now snuggling up to Trump. How compounding dismissiveness and our participation in the “rat race” has contributed to the volatile power dynamics occurring in D.C. Although I don’t believe that it is our individual responsibility to fix the issues created by the rulers of this world, we do still live in this world. We are all doing our best to have financial security within late-stage capitalism yet some of our “bests” are truly nothing at all. Government is not shaped by your vote. It is shaped by your money. Or are you letting your money shape you?
He was a former theatre kid
Love you Octavia! But this mans hoarding mirrored that of Big Daddy and the rest of his Big Boy friends. Using your padded paycheck to buy yourself to safety for the climate apocalypse that was created by everyone else who is doing the same. Did none of ya’ll see that Leonardo DiCaprio movie?
I’m aware that Bezos stepped down as CEO in 2021, but he still remains a top shareholder, is the executive chairman, and the company did not become what it is today without his greed and power. Working for Amazon is still working for Bezos’ power.