Nationalize Amazon
There are many lessons we could take from the last decade of American politics, in which our country has degenerated further and further into an oligarchic hellscape. One I hope a majority would agree with is that current levels of wealth inequality are incompatible with political democracy. There are various ways this issue might be addressed, but one I’d prefer is nationalizing giant corporations, like Amazon, by which I mean putting them under public control and redirecting the profits to socially-beneficial ends.
I was struck by a recent post that appeared on the website Bluesky, which said that given Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a net worth of more than $253 billion, he could light $1 million on fire every day for almost 700 years without exhausting his funds. If this wasn’t incredible enough, a number of commentators pointed out the post was misleading, since Bezos earns more than $1 million in interest every day, so, actually, the oligarch could burn $1 million a day in perpetuity. This is, needless to say, outrageous.
Compared to many, I live a life of privilege. And, yet, is there any sense in which I can claim equality with Bezos? The question is laughable on its face. Take our ability to participate in the democratic process. Sure, we both have one vote, but, if I want to influence the views of others, I must write a letter to the editor which newspaper staff choose to run or create a short-form video which happens to go viral. In contrast, Bezos can purchase even more of the media landscape than he already has and change the editorial line as he sees fit.
To help neutralize this threat to democracy, we should nationalize companies like Amazon. The federal government should take over all aspects of the business, from the stock warehouses and delivery fleets to its streaming applications and cloud-computing services. The profits could be put toward any number of worthy projects, like rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, funding local news organizations in communities without them, providing free healthcare to all, or offering no-cost college education to anyone who wants it.
Personally, as an animal activist, I’d like to see a portion of such profits devoted to funding cultivated-meat research. For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from livestock cells, without slaughter. I view developing this technology as the most promising means of reducing nonhuman suffering and premature death. We should be establishing facilities like the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture across the country. The point, however, is these profits could be put toward anything we might democratically decide on.
Present levels of wealth inequality are destabilizing the United States in any number of ways. Among other things, it’s fueling a fascist movement which has taken control of the White House and the wider Republican Party. Such politics reflect what’s been termed ‘the socialism of fools,’ a far-right populism which blames racial, religious and gender minorities for the existing, miserable state of affairs, rather than the obscenely wealthy. Let’s help preserve American democracy by nationalizing giant companies like Amazon.
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