It’s all about greed
On Wednesday, U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, along with California Congressman Ro Khanna, introduced a bill known as the BEZOS Act. It is aimed at recouping from big corporations all costs incurred by states and the federal government for having to subsidize their employees’ low wages through social programs.
The lawmakers made their proposal based on reports from think tanks about the topic.
Sen. Sanders made it clear when he pointed out to the unjust subsidy corporations like Amazon, McDonald’s and Walmart receive in public programs for keeping their workforce part time and paying low wages that make it impossible to cover basic needs.
The bill has been named as the BEZOS Act after Jeff Bezos, the richest man on Earth and whose net worth has been estimated at $166.8 billion, a fortune larger than California’s yearly budget. The Princeton graduate purchased The Washington Post five years ago for $250 million in cash.
Born Jeffrey Jorgensen in 1964 in Albuquerque, N.M., Bezos was adopted by his Cuban stepfather who moved the family to cities like Houston and Miami. Bezos himself started out his company in a small garage in Seattle. In less than 25 years, it has become a worldwide business that makes millions in sales every single day while sharing a small amount with its employees.
According to The New Food Economy study that served as the basis of the bill, a third of Amazon employees in our neighboring state of Arizona depend on food stamps to put food on the table.
Other states reviewed in the study were Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kansas and Washington. The study also underlined other private companies that are well known in our area — Circle K, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Home Depot, Taco Bell, Denny’s, Subway, Dollar Tree, Macys, Wendy’s, Sonic, Pizza Hut, Kroger and Starbucks. They all are cited as being culpable in maintaining underpaid and underemployed workforces that can’t make ends meet without taxpayer help.
Another study by the Center for Labor Research and Education of the University of California, Berkeley said half of Imperial County workers are paid low wages. The share of those workers who rely on the safety net to survive is unknown. But reports provided by the California Controller’s Office indicate 29.7 percent of the county’s $439.4 million budget last year covered public assistance services and programs. Such expenditures increased from $84.5 million in 2007 to $130.5 million last year, a climb of $46 million, or 54.43 percent.
The cost in California for providing public assistance to low-wage workers is $3.7 billion in Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program, Temporary Aid to Needy Families and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Nationwide, that cost is about $150 billion.
I personally think the chances of this bill becoming law are almost non-existent, given the Republican majority in Congress. The party is generally averse to approving “socialist-like” measures and is more inclined to support big corporations, as it did with tax reform.
If, unexpectedly, the bill makes it to the White House and is signed by President Donald Trump, it will provide some help to local coffers, particularly in Imperial County.