The founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, also one of the wealthiest people in the world, has announced that his company will give $1 million Australian dollars to help Australia in their management of the bushfires.
Even though $690,000 isn’t a small sum, Bezos’s announcement has stirred up social media and a lot of people are claiming that this isn’t a significant amount if we take into account how much money Amazon makes and how much Bezos’s net worth is.
According to one Twitter user, if we worked every day and making $5000 per day, from the time Columbus sailed to America to this day, we still won’t be able to become a billionaire and we would still have less money than the amount Bezos makes weekly.
And, according to some estimates, the company Amazon is around $1 trillion worthy. This is thousand billions or $1,000,000,000,000.
Bezos’s Donation Is nothing Compared to How Much He Makes?
If the company is valued at $1 trillion, his current donation would be 000069 percent of the company’s total worth.
According to the Federal Reserve, the median net worth for families in America is $97,000.
So, for the usual American, a donation equal to that of Amazon would be less than 7 cents.
Twitter users immediately caught and pointed out the insignificant donation by one of the richest companies in the world, especially if we compare it to other people’s donations that are much more in comparison to their net worth.
For example, the metal group Metallica reportedly gave $750,000 and the pop singer Pink pledged $500,000.
Not Everyone Is Supportive of Amazon’s Donation Shaming
Although a lot of users on Twitter criticized Amazon’s small donation, others pointed out that Amazon didn’t have to give anything, but still did.
We need to understand that giving is voluntary and relative.
The debate is whether or not a person with a lot of money is obliged to share his/her wealth with the society and the people in need.
And, if he/she is obliged to do this, how much of their wealth is reasonable for us to expect?
According to the person who originally shared the story about Bezos, if every Twitter user would donate $2, they can beat Amazon owner’s donation.
But, a $2 donation for a regular American is equivalent to more than $3 million for Amazon.
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