As the world economy struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic and people across the world face financial hardships, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and the world’s third-richest human being, continues to thrive.
According to Comparisum, a company that allows businesses to compare different products, Bezos is on pace to become the world’s first trillionaire, reports say.
Their calculations say if Amazon continues at the rate of growth it’s seeing, Bezos, who Forbes lists as currently having over $143 billion, will reach the be the first member of the four comma club by the year 2026.
As the news spread, it drew severe backlash on social media from people who point out the financial disparity between the world’s richest individuals and the majority of us who are struggling to make ends meet as unemployment continues to be on the rise.
While Jeff Bezos is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire in the middle of a pandemic, Amazon is ending overtime pay for warehouse and delivery workers on the front lines. This is immoral. pic.twitter.com/aeR4bCXVHi
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2020
Jeff Bezos is set to become the first trillionaire. That’s a million million. Twelve 0’s. A thousand billions. pic.twitter.com/O0kyaonAKt
— Vimbaaa? (@Vimba_V) May 14, 2020
Jeff bezos please pay your workers more and give them better working conditions if you’re the worlds first fucking trillionaire
— Cat (@catgalleta) May 14, 2020
36 million unemployed, 40 million with no healthcare, 50 million live near the poverty line but Bezos will be a trillionaire by 2026. https://t.co/hF7X6Z5EJP
— ??? ????????? (@TiaBarracini) May 14, 2020
Jeff Bezos is set to become the worlds first trillionaire and his workforce who helped him to get there struggle to pay bills
— Ben (@BenJolly9) May 14, 2020
Bezos’ trek to a trillion comes as his company faces criticisms of how it’s treating its workforce.
Protestors organized as recently as May 1st to express dissatisfaction over “continuing failure to provide adequate protection in the workplace,” news reports say.
Amazon responded to the protests with a released statement claiming they are doing everything to provide safe working conditions for their employees:
“Since the early days of this situation, we have worked closely with health authorities to respond proactively, ensuring we can continue to serve communities while taking care of our associates and teams. We have also implemented proactive measures at our facilities to protect employees including increased cleaning at all facilities, maintaining social distance in our sites, and adding distance between drivers and customers when making deliveries.”
The news of Bezos’ fortunate influx of money also follows a recent announcement that Amazon would be ending wage increases and double overtime pay next month.
