Billionaire-Hating Leftists in Nasty Bind as Billionaires Move To Stop Coronavirus
It must be very confusing to be a left-wing radical these days.
While many on the far left hate the fact that rich people even exist, some of the world’s wealthiest people happen to be leftists who say all the right things about climate change and gun control. (Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, of course, is the prime example of this.)
Now, billionaires are pledging to use their own money in the fight against coronavirus.
What a conundrum.
On Monday, Business Insider reported that Bill and Melinda Gates, Alibaba Group mogul Jack Ma and Li Ka-Shing, who is the richest man in Hong Kong, have pledged a combined tens of millions of dollars to combat the deadly virus. (The Gates alone are spending $100 million)
The novel coronavirus has killed more than 4,000 people worldwide, with the number of confirmed cases exceeding 118,000.
While governments around the world are working to develop a vaccine or at least stop the spread of the disease, additional funding from generous billionaires provides a welcomed boost to the effort.
The funds come at a time when many in the U.S., including a number of mainstream politicians, are pushing the idea that billionaires should never have made their fortunes in the first place.
Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, for instance, has said she belives “a system that allows billionaires to exist” is immoral, CNBC reported.
However, it is that wealth that enables such donations.
If Vermont senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders had it his way, billionaires would not be allowed to exist.
Just this week, Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted Sanders over his past support for this sentiment, and Sanders doubled down, saying “enough really is enough” in terms of wealth accumulation.
While Sanders rails against the wealth of others, he has defended himself over the fact that he owns a summer home, implying that such a luxury is actually so common to Vermonters it needn’t be discussed.
Maybe he thinks a man in Burlington, Vermont, picking through the trash is only doing that because he doesn’t have time to stop at Whole Foods on the way out to his lake house.
This sort of thing sums up the left’s hypocritical relationship with money.
The problems don’t stop there. Even when the mega rich are generous, leftists are quick to complain that its just not enough.
The Twitter account for the aptly named “Eat The Rich Podcast” claimed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ paltry $98 million donation to help the homeless was not enough in relation to his overall wealth, saying, “If you made $50,000 per year this is the equivalent of giving away $45.”
If you made $50,000 per year this is the equivalent of giving away $45. pic.twitter.com/yBAeL7ExRV
— Eat The Rich Podcast (@EatTheRichPod) November 23, 2019
It seems as though nothing will stop leftists from complaining about billionaires, even when they willingly share their wealth to benefit humanity.
Just as there are no atheists in a foxhole, one wonders if there will be any socialists left in a pandemic.
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