We need to talk about Jeff…
If the average American (earning $31,000 per year) had saved $11 every month since the year 2000, they would have approximately $3,000 in their bank account. This could get you a return flight to Cancun from Charlotte, NC, a taxi to Tulum and 7 nights in a 3 star all inclusive hotel. It would be a lovely trip and fantastic to turn the small monthly savings into limitless mojitos by the beach.
$7.5 billion, the amount Jeff Bezos has spent on Blue Origin since 2000, is equivalent in value to Jeff as $3,000 is to the average American. Put like that, the billionaire’s sojourn into space seems no more than a well earned and long planned (4 minute) vacation.
And yet somehow, despite the pioneering technology that will no doubt push multiple boundaries of various innovations, the trip feels unsavoury. In the US, some communities are not getting vaccinated against Covid-19 as they cannot afford to give up the two hours of work required to travel (often by bus) to a vaccination centre. $7.5 billion could have paid for 75 million people to receive $100, enough to cover the hours of work lost.
