{"id":2741,"date":"2020-12-17T17:42:02","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T17:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=140513"},"modified":"2020-12-17T17:42:02","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T17:42:02","slug":"dear-mackenzie-theres-one-more-donation-you-owe-to-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/17\/dear-mackenzie-theres-one-more-donation-you-owe-to-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Mackenzie: There’s One More Donation You Owe to the World"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Dear Macken\u00adzie Scott, <\/p>\n

This week, you announced<\/a> that you\u2019ve made $4.2 bil\u00adlion in char\u00adi\u00adta\u00adble dona\u00adtions in the past four months. For that you deserve an extreme\u00adly mod\u00adest amount of con\u00adgrat\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtions! You are, no doubt, besieged at all times by peo\u00adple who come to kiss your ass and beg for mon\u00adey. We come to you today with some\u00adthing dif\u00adfer\u00adent: moral con\u00addem\u00adna\u00adtion leav\u00adened with only the faintest sense of praise\u2009\u2014\u2009com\u00adbined with an idea that offers redemp\u00adtion for you and for the belea\u00adguered reg\u00adu\u00adlar peo\u00adple of Amer\u00adi\u00adca at the same time.<\/p>\n

Your net worth, accord\u00ading to reports, stands at some\u00adthing like $60 bil\u00adlion<\/a>. How did you get so rich? You got so rich by being mar\u00adried to Ama\u00adzon CEO Jeff Bezos for 25 years. More specif\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly, you got so rich by divorc\u00ading<\/a> Jeff Bezos last year, and get\u00adting 4% of Amazon\u2019s stock in the process. That stake in the com\u00adpa\u00adny was worth $38 bil\u00adlion<\/a> when you got it. You have there\u00adfore made more than $20 bil\u00adlion in the past year, thanks to the company\u2019s boom dur\u00ading the pandemic. <\/p>\n

The very exis\u00adtence of a $60 bil\u00adlion for\u00adtune in the hands of one per\u00adson is a crime, proof of the way that human soci\u00adety has evolved away from jus\u00adtice.<\/p>\n

Here is where we will say some\u00adthing mild\u00adly nice about you: You seem to be on the good end of the bil\u00adlion\u00adaire class. Many of your wealthy peers view char\u00adi\u00adta\u00adble giv\u00ading as a chance to see their name<\/a> adorn\u00ading fan\u00adcy build\u00adings, or to attend lav\u00adish social events while being insu\u00adlat\u00aded from crit\u00adi\u00adcism for their lav\u00adish\u00adness. Oth\u00aders, like your ex-hus\u00adband, view char\u00adi\u00adty as an unim\u00adpor\u00adtant after\u00adthought, donat\u00ading an inde\u00adfen\u00adsi\u00adbly pal\u00adtry<\/a> por\u00adtion of their wealth to the needy, or leav\u00ading the task to a foun\u00adda\u00adtion after they\u2019re dead. By giv\u00ading away bil\u00adlions this year alone, you have demon\u00adstrat\u00aded that you grasp, to some extent, the moral urgency of help\u00ading peo\u00adple soon\u00ader rather than lat\u00ader. You have pledged<\/a> to give away the major\u00adi\u00adty of your wealth in your own life\u00adtime\u2009\u2014\u2009not much of an eth\u00adi\u00adcal achieve\u00adment by Peter Singer<\/a> stan\u00addards, but in the con\u00adtext of Amer\u00adi\u00adcan bil\u00adlion\u00adaires, not bad. <\/p>\n

Fur\u00adther\u00admore, your choic\u00ades of where to give seem to show that you do care about impact, and not just grandeur and flash. You sought out small orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtions, from his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly Black col\u00adleges to local food banks, that can do a lot with your mon\u00adey, rather than lazi\u00adly writ\u00ading checks to big nation\u00adal groups that will show\u00ader you with good P.R. and then blow a lot of your mon\u00adey on mid\u00addle man\u00adage\u00adment. You exhib\u00adit a very basic sense of human decen\u00adcy, and that alone puts you ahead of most of your peers. <\/p>\n

Of course, that is not enough to give you a pass. The very exis\u00adtence of a $60 bil\u00adlion for\u00adtune in the hands of one per\u00adson is a crime, proof of the way that human soci\u00adety has evolved away from jus\u00adtice. And your for\u00adtune, in par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar, is not clean. Your mon\u00adey was earned on the backs of hun\u00addreds of thou\u00adsands of reg\u00adu\u00adlar peo\u00adple who have done the work<\/a> that makes Ama\u00adzon run, and suf\u00adfered as a result. They have suf\u00adfered phys\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly. They have suf\u00adfered finan\u00adcial\u00adly. And they have suf\u00adfered exis\u00adten\u00adtial\u00adly, by being treat\u00aded at every turn as cogs in a machine, rather than as human beings whose own hopes and dreams and auton\u00ado\u00admy should be allowed to flour\u00adish. Every Ama\u00adzon ware\u00adhouse work\u00ader forced to pee in a bot\u00adtle<\/a> because they didn\u2019t have suf\u00adfi\u00adcient breaks; every Ama\u00adzon office work\u00ader who slept in their car<\/a> in order to keep their job; every Ama\u00adzon deliv\u00adery dri\u00adver<\/a> denied a chance at an actu\u00adal career with a liv\u00ading wage and ben\u00ade\u00adfits because the com\u00adpa\u00adny has seen to it they will nev\u00ader be a full time employ\u00adee; all of these peo\u00adple put a dol\u00adlar into your pock\u00adet, Macken\u00adzie Scott. Your for\u00adtune came from them. Your mon\u00adey was earned by squeez\u00ading them into pover\u00adty. That is the plain truth. No mat\u00adter how nice of a per\u00adson you may con\u00adsid\u00ader your\u00adself to be, the fact is that you have a pro\u00adfound debt to all those people. <\/p>\n

You could, I guess, just write a check and give every Ama\u00adzon work\u00ader a few thou\u00adsand bucks. That would be nice for a pass\u00ading moment, but noth\u00ading would real\u00adly change. You can\u00adnot fix a struc\u00adtur\u00adal debt with a trin\u00adket. In order to start cor\u00adrect\u00ading the fun\u00adda\u00admen\u00adtal injus\u00adtices that have made you so rich, you must do some\u00adthing that can give those work\u00ading peo\u00adple their own pow\u00ader to take back con\u00adtrol of their lives. <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

With one check, you can make it pos\u00adsi\u00adble to start union\u00adiz\u00ading the com\u00adpa\u00adny that made you a mega-bil\u00adlion\u00adaire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ama\u00adzon needs a union<\/a>. And I am hap\u00adpy to say: Macken\u00adzie Scott, you can help with that. It\u2019s hard to orga\u00adnize a com\u00adpa\u00adny like Ama\u00adzon, both because it is a larg\u00ader beast than any indi\u00advid\u00adual union has resources for, and because it will spend a great deal of mon\u00adey on lies and intim\u00adi\u00adda\u00adtion to pre\u00advent its work\u00aders from exer\u00adcis\u00ading their fun\u00adda\u00admen\u00adtal right to orga\u00adnize. But mon\u00adey can help to even the play\u00ading field. For a small frac\u00adtion of the mon\u00adey you just gave out\u2009\u2014\u2009say, $100 mil\u00adlion\u2009\u2014\u2009it would be pos\u00adsi\u00adble to hire orga\u00adniz\u00aders nation\u00adwide with the express pur\u00adpose of union\u00adiz\u00ading Ama\u00adzon. The com\u00adpa\u00adny is cur\u00adrent\u00adly fight\u00ading<\/a> against one sin\u00adgle union dri\u00adve at a ware\u00adhouse in Alaba\u00adma; we need to have them fight\u00ading against par\u00adal\u00adlel union dri\u00adves at hun\u00addreds of ware\u00adhous\u00ades across the coun\u00adtry all at once. The labor move\u00adment knows how to orga\u00adnize work\u00ading peo\u00adple, but its resources are sim\u00adply no match for a $1.6 tril\u00adlion com\u00adpa\u00adny that can stamp out iso\u00adlat\u00aded dri\u00adves like a giant crush\u00ading an ant. To give Amazon\u2019s work\u00aders a chance at real jus\u00adtice, the com\u00adpa\u00adny must be orga\u00adnized. And to orga\u00adnize a com\u00adpa\u00adny like this, there must be ded\u00adi\u00adcat\u00aded nation\u00adal infra\u00adstruc\u00adture work\u00ading on this, and only this. No labor union in the Unit\u00aded States has enough mon\u00adey to build this on the scale that\u2019s nec\u00ades\u00adsary. But you do, Macken\u00adzie Scott. <\/p>\n

With one check, you can make it pos\u00adsi\u00adble to start union\u00adiz\u00ading the com\u00adpa\u00adny that made you a mega-bil\u00adlion\u00adaire. This is the sin\u00adgle best way to start pay\u00ading your moral debt to those whose lives have been treat\u00aded as dis\u00adpos\u00adable in ser\u00advice to Amazon\u2019s growth. And, it will real\u00adly piss off Jeff Bezos. I think we would both like to see that, no? <\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to have to con\u00adfis\u00adcate the rest of your mon\u00adey when the rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion comes any\u00adhow. Might as well set your kar\u00adma right before then. <\/p>\n

Sin\u00adcere\u00adly,<\/p>\n

The unwashed masses<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Macken\u00adzie\u00a0Scott,\u00a0 This week, you announced that you\u2019ve made $4.2 bil\u00adlion in char\u00adi\u00adta\u00adble dona\u00adtions in the past four months. For that you deserve an extreme\u00adly mod\u00adest amount of\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2742,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741\/revisions\/2742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}