Naked Greed part 3

The bloodsucker Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon, has increased his huge fortune, adding an extra $24 billion . Bezos now has $138.5 billion in his coffers, thanks to soaring online buying during the pandemic. The Walton family (no,not that nice hillbilly family on the telly) who own the superstores Walmart and Asda over here, saw their fortunes rise to $169 billion, making them the world’s richest family. The owner of online meetings site Zoom, Eric Yuan, also increased his riches to $7.4billion. Elon Musk, the boss of the electric car firm Tesla, stuffed his piggy bank with an extra $10 billion.

Meanwhile workers in these firms are forced to work for low wages and in unsafe conditions whilst these magnates gorge themselves at the trough of profit.

All of this is going on as President Trump agreed a corporate bail-out because of the pandemic . As a result, the tax breaks and grants offered by this package mean that many capitalists, including Trump himself, are raking in billions of dollars, with each millionaire receiving an average of $1.6 million in tax relief. It especially benefits those who run hedge funds and invest in real estate. So $170 billion is being paid out of public coffers to further finance the already wealthy and super-wealthy. Meanwhile there is only $100 billion to fund hospitals and $150 billion to state governments and local governments to pay for public services. In addition the airline bosses in the USA are receiving $25 billion in grants.

The coronavirus pandemic will further increase the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Bosses are bloating themselves on profits, whilst key workers-health and care workers, shop workers, transport workers, etc, risk their lives and health for a pittance.