Washington Post Says Be Nicer to Billionaires

The billionaire-owned publication runs a puff piece suggesting the mega-rich are misunderstood and deserve more empathy.

Jan 31

Photo by Charles M. Vella via Getty Image

Let me start by stating the obvious: Billionaires shouldn’t exist.

No individual should be able to wake up each day hoarding the resources to end hunger and homelessness. No individual should pocket more in a day than most people can earn in ten lifetimes. No individual should get to play astronaut with their spare change as children starve. No individual should be able to game the system and exploit workers to amass obscene wealth. And no individual should be able to double that obscene wealth in a pandemic while the vast majority of people suffer.

AJ+ @ajplus

The world's 10 richest men have gotten 2x richer during the pandemic, while 99% of humanity got poorer. @Oxfam found: ▪️ Elon Musk, who paid no federal taxes in 2018, got 1,000% richer ▪️ Total billionaire gains were $5 trillion, enough to pay for the whole world to get vaccines

♿🕊️ 🙌 💉 Demand MedicareForAll! @LeftwardSwing

Elon Musk alone could completely eradicate global hunger with using just 2% of his wealth. Yet he chooses not to. #PoorPeoplesCampaign

Peter Daou @peterdaou

US billionaires amassed enough wealth this WEEK to give every homeless person in America $100,000.

But don’t complain about obscene wealth to the corporate media, purveyors of capitalism. They’re busy doing PR for the super-rich.

Alan MacLeod @AlanRMacLeod

The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post runs a puff piece on billionaire Leon Cooperman:

“I’m a great believer in capitalism,” he said. “We have the best economic system in the world.” “How do you become wealthy?” he asked. “You develop a product or a service that people want. The world is better off for a Larry Ellison, a Bill Gates. Look at the jobs they created. Look at the good they did for the world. The attack on wealthy people makes no sense to me.”
“What made America great is our system of capitalism, incentivizing work and effort and ingenuity,” he’d written. “Capitalism has flaws, but socialism has no benefits. Why not spread my work ethic instead of just my wealth?”

The WaPo story goes on to quote Cooperman speaking to a group of low-income college students:

“Believe it or not, I have a great deal of commonality with all of you … It’s gotten harder. But the 99 percent can still join the 1 percent. It’s possible with enough luck and commitment.”
“I can speak to the issues of both being rich and being poor,” he told them, and as a billionaire in the bifurcating American economy, there was one truth of which he felt certain.
“Being rich is better,” he said.

“Being rich is better,” says the billionaire.