{"id":119874,"date":"2018-10-08T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T11:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=119874"},"modified":"2018-10-08T10:36:40","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T09:36:40","slug":"one-man-could-end-world-hunger-but-he-wont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/10\/one-man-could-end-world-hunger-but-he-wont\/","title":{"rendered":"One Man Could End World Hunger, but He Won\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Billions and billions: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is doing his part to widen the income gap.
(Composite image from Megapixel, Cliff Owen \/ AP)<\/p><\/div>\n

3 Oct 2018 – <\/em>I do not want to talk about Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n

But in order to not talk about Jeff Bezos, I have to talk about Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n

We all know the Lex Luthor-looking head of Amazon is the richest human in the world.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s achieved a net worth of more than $150 billion<\/a> by selling everything that has ever existed \u2026 with free shipping. (It turns out the only thing stopping the human race from giving all our money to one man was that pesky $4.99 shipping fee.)<\/p>\n

But let me stop right here. Even the way we talk about economics is influenced by a capitalist culture that tells us amassing money is the answer to everything. Did you notice I said Bezos \u201cachieved\u201d a net worth of $150 billion, and that seems like a normal way to phrase it? However, would you say, \u201cJeffrey Dahmer achieved eating the hearts of 10 different people?\u201d No, that would sound odd to you. Yet having $150 billion is nearly as sociopathic, and still we use terminology as if it\u2019s GREAT<\/em>!<\/p>\n

But, like I said, this column is not about Jeff Bezos. It\u2019s about clean water.<\/p>\n

Clean water is one of the most important things to anyone and everyone (second only to nacho cheese). Yet millions around the world don\u2019t have clean water or struggle to get it. A report by the U.N<\/a>. <\/u>\u201cestimated that 300 million people on the continent [of Africa], more than a third of the population, have no fixed supply [of clean water].\u201d And 2.5 billion worldwide lack proper sanitation. The CDC says<\/a> 2,200 children die a day from diarrheal diseases\u2014mostly from unclean water.<\/p>\n

Millions of people in total die each year from a lack of clean water. So how much would it cost to change that? It would cost $10 billion<\/a> a year to bring pure water to the entire world.<\/p>\n

Jeff Bezos himself could provide the world with clean water for the next 15 years.<\/p>\n

He could save millions upon millions of lives. But instead of doing that, he will continue to enrich himself by delivering sex toys in a box with a smiley on it.<\/p>\n

But this is not about Jeff Bezos. It\u2019s about world hunger. According to UNICEF<\/a>, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty while the U.N. in 2015 estimated it would cost $30 billion<\/a> a year to end world hunger. Imagine\u2014not a soul hungry! And big shock\u2014when people aren\u2019t hungry, there\u2019s less crime, less hatred, better decision-making, and so forth. Hunger correlates with all kinds of shitty stuff, which means we all benefit when there\u2019s no hunger. Think about it; you probably have coworkers who miss lunch and start spraying hate crimes around the office. Then you have to say, \u201cLeslie, I think if you just had a taco, you would stop using the C-word so much.\u201d Now imagine Leslie on a global scale.<\/p>\n

Jeff Bezos himself could end world hunger for five straight years. If he teamed up with the Koch brothers, they could do it for eight to 10 years.<\/p>\n

But Bezos wouldn\u2019t do that. Instead, he\u2019ll just make billions convincing people to put Amazon Echo spy systems into their own homes.<\/p>\n

This column is not about Jeff Bezos. It\u2019s about Flint, Mich.<\/p>\n

You remember how upset we were about Flint\u2019s water? It was poisoned with lead. It was destroying lives of people who were already poor to begin with. Then the authorities came to the conclusion it would cost $216 million<\/a> to fix, and everyone was aghast. That\u2019s an insane amount of money. How could ANY city afford that?!<\/p>\n

Jeff Bezos could pay to repair Flint\u2019s water supply 694 times over.<\/p>\n

He could pay for it 690 times over and still have 864 million <\/em>dollars left to pay for a cast of people to dance around him dressed like wood sprites and sprinkle glitter on his shining bald head for the rest of his fucking life. (So don\u2019t say he wouldn\u2019t be happy.)<\/p>\n

But this column is not about Jeff Bezos. It\u2019s about homelessness.<\/p>\n

There are 554,000 homeless<\/a> people in the U.S., one of the richest countries in the world. What would it cost to give each of these struggling people his or her own apartment? Recent numbers show the cheapest apartments to rent in America are in Wichita, Kan. (because why would ya? \u2026 unless you were heavily invested in grasshoppers). In Wichita an apartment costs $632 per month<\/a>. (In San Francisco that\u2019s the cost of the monthly utility bill for a dog house.) So $632 per month amounts to $7,584 per year. Therefore, the total cost to give every American houseless person an apartment in Wichita would be $4.2 billion.<\/p>\n

Jeff Bezos could give every homeless person their own apartment for the next 36 YEARS<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This is one<\/em> man we\u2019re talking about! But Jeff Bezos would never do that. He\u2019d rather push a bag of 3,000 live ladybugs<\/a> on someone actually <\/em>searching Amazon for \u201cLady Bugs\u201d the Rodney Dangerfield film<\/a> (which was apparently intended as a children\u2019s movie, but now seems like a guidebook for how to become a #MeToo predator).<\/p>\n

But this column is not about Jeff Bezos. It\u2019s about education.<\/p>\n

When people go to college without coming out stuck under immense debt, it often changes their whole lives. They can get better jobs, eat healthier, provide for their family. \u201cAccording to the American Association of Community Colleges<\/a><\/u>,\u201d this source says<\/a>, \u201cthe average yearly cost of tuition and fees for community college students in the U.S. is $3,347. \u2026\u201d It usually takes two years to graduate from community college, so the cost for two years is $6,694.<\/p>\n

Jeff Bezos could pay for the entire community college education of 22.4 million students.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s more than the entire number of college students enrolled this year across our country. Of course you\u2019d have to pay for your own beer bongs, posters of John Belushi in the \u201ccollege\u201d sweater<\/a>, macaroni stuck to the floor and pregnancy tests. (But I know a guy who can get you a homemade pregnancy test for 35 cents. It\u2019s made out of alkaline batteries and sawdust, but it\u2019ll spot a freakin\u2019 baby a mile away.)<\/p>\n

However, this column is not about Jeff Bezos. It\u2019s about the system that created <\/em>Bezos.<\/p>\n

If you removed Bezos from Amazon tomorrow and vacuumed all his money away, he would be replaced by another sick hoarder of egregious wealth. This is because we have a deathly ill economic system. Think about it this way\u2014the goals of our economy (and any economy),\u00a0according to Zeitgeist Movement founder Peter Joseph<\/a>, and I agree, should <\/em>be:<\/p>\n