The Amazon CEO’s yacht needs its own “support yacht” — so he can land his helicopter
By
I’m not
referring to mere millionaires, but to the billionaire bunch. In the past year,
while ordinary Americans have lost jobs, businesses, and homes due to the
pandemic economic crash, America’s 664 billionaires have found themselves
nearly 40 percent richer than before COVID.
These fortunate
few collectively added more than $1 trillion in 2020 to their personal stashes
of wealth. And practically all of them got so much richer by doing nothing —
their money made the extra money for them, because corporate stock prices
zoomed even as regular people lost income.
Take a peek at
the richest of these different ones: Jeff Bezos of Amazon. He hauled in an
additional $75 billion last year, or roughly $37 million an hour.
You could do a
lot of good with such riches… or you could splurge on yourself.
Bezos splurged.
He bought one of the largest sailing vessels ever built. More than one-and-a-third football fields long, the superyacht cost the diminutive mega-billionaire around half a billion dollars. Plus, he’ll pay some $60 million each year for operating expenses.
He also had to
buy a “support yacht” to sail along with his main boat. Why? Because the three
sails on his 400-footer are so huge that a helicopter can’t land on the deck,
requiring an auxiliary yacht to provide a helipad.
See, the rich
really are different — where to park our helicopter while at sea is a problem
you and I don’t have to face.
According to
mega-yacht sellers, the main draw of these ostentatious purchases is that they
reinforce inequality, literally letting the rich float in leisure and luxury,
oceans apart from even having to see hoi polloi like us.
Not
coincidentally, Amazon paid no federal taxes in 2019. So the Biden
administration’s idea to fund an American jobs package with corporate tax hikes
sounds like a good one to me.
OtherWords columnist is
a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
