Jeff Bezos promises you that doubling his taxes won’t make your life better

Taxing the rich might not solve the world’s problems—at least, that’s what the rich say. In a recent sit-down interview, CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin spoke with Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos at the billionaire’s Blue Origin facility in Florida. There, Bezos shared that he believes low earners in the U.S. should not pay taxes. “One percent of taxpayers pay 40% of all the tax revenue; the bottom half pay only 3%. I think it should be zero,” Bezos said. “I think there’s something very powerful about zero.” But it was a different remark from the world’s fourth-richest person—who in the past has paid reportedly zero dollars in federal taxes—that is catching people’s attention across social media. “If people want me to pay more billions right, then let’s have that debate, but don’t pretend that that’s going to solve the problem,” Bezos told CNBC. “You could double the taxes I pay, and it’s not going to help that teacher in Queens. I promise you.” Unsurprisingly, social media users are not welcoming the remarks. “‘Don’t tax me more,’ says the billionaire worth hundreds of billions while teachers buy classroom supplies with their own paychecks. Cool system,” said a user on X. Another on Threads added, “Jeff Bezos’s argument for why him paying billions more in taxes won’t help the average person. “Believe me.” The comment followed Sorkin’s question regarding tax rates, which can sometimes be higher for people in lower tax brackets than for billionaires themselves, even though the total amount is still significantly higher than everyday earners. (Bezos, for his part, claimed that he already pays “billions” in taxes.) Bezos also emphasized the value that his for-profit companies bring to society, in comparison to his philanthropy. “If I do my job right, the value to society and