u/Jout92

For those out of the loop Jeff Bezos said in an interview that it doesn't make sense that the bottom 50% pay taxes when their total tax contribution is less than 3%.

I didn't think much off it, thought it was a sensible position to have, only to learn that a lot of online people are hella surprised about this proposition. To me it's just a sensible position and I am not at all surprised that a guy like Jeff Bezos would also think this is a good idea. But in online discourse it seems to melt a lot of people's brain. "Why is he saying this?" "What's the catch?" "Is he preparing to run for president?" "He must have ulterior motives".

Now while it's true that he has ulterior motives (more revenue for him + people cannot say they pay more taxes than him if they pay none) I find it so surprising that people cannot accept that he honestly holds this position. It's a classical liberal position and a classical business owner position. I guarantee you Jeff Bezos isn't preparing to run for president, I think he his wholeheartedly uninterested in that position (of course I can never know).

But looking at online discourse it seems to create such a mental twist in people it's as if they learned Hitler just said we should fight climate change. Which just shows to me that most people just have fully accepted the uncritical villainization of Billionaires. They don't even see them as people anymore, they honestly think they are moustache twirling villains and genuinely cannot comprehend that he could hold a position that actually benefits them without irony. It goes to show that all that socialist discourse does is poison the well. People cannot engage with propositions of the "enemy" even if it would objectively benefit them. And ultimately the working class is hurting itself thanks to this. At least that's my opinion. Are socialists (and maybe capitalists) in this sub really genuinely surprised by Jeff Bezos demand?