"hoarding that much wealth in a society like ours, where so many people are suffering, is grotesque and immoral. Today, 38 million Americans live in poverty, 78% of workers live paycheck to paycheck, and half of all American families (61 million households) can’t afford basics like food and rent. 30 million Americans don’t have health insurance, and another 80 million are under-insured (meaning they skip the doctor because it costs too much). Half a million Americans go bankrupt each year from medical bills and 40% don’t have $400 in the bank to cover emergency expenses. 80% of families have an average debt load of $135,768, and 44 million Americans are burdened with student debt, and over 2 million of them owe more than $100,000. Bezos accumulates that much in 30 seconds. Bernie’s point (and mine) is that these conditions are related. The super-rich flourish because the rest of us do not. Class inequality is relational. Worker productivity is up 70% since 1980, yet wages are up only 11%. Workers’ share of income is going down while corporate profits are going up. The rich get richer at your expense. Of course, the rich say they “deserve” their wealth because they “earned” it. Even if that were true — it’s not, by the way; 50% of billionaire wealth is inherited, another 15% is a result of monopoly control — it doesn’t justify a situation where the mega-rich sit on mountains of money while people are dying because they cannot afford insulin, losing teeth because they cannot afford a trip to the dentist, and graduating college with the equivalent of a mortgage. The median Amazon worker makes $28,000 a year; Jeff Bezos collects more than that in 10 seconds. His company paid $0 in federal income tax in 2018, despite $11 billion in profits. The reason? Another billionaire gave him a tax cut." Tompkins, Joe. “Billionaires Should Not Exist.” The Campus, alleghenycampus.com/18543/opinion/billionaires-should-not-exist/.