American capitalists vs. American capitalism

IT’S bad enough when leftists smear capitalism. I hate it more when capitalists do it, too. I’d hoped for more from the world’s current richest man, Jeff Bezos. I love the service he created. Amazon lets me buy Christmas gifts from my couch. Entrepreneur Bezos is a hero. He created jobs and better service, and he and his investors pay billions in taxes.

So I got angry when I saw Sen. Bernie Sanders’ fundraising letters condemning Bezos because some of his workers are eligible for food stamps. “In ten seconds,” whined Sanders, Bezos makes “more money than the median employee of Amazon makes in an entire year.”

Well, at least Bezos will stand up for himself and the free market system that created his wealth, right? At first, he did. Amazon called the criticisms “inaccurate” and “misleading.” It’s not the company’s fault that some workers qualify for handouts. More people would collect them if Amazon did not hire.

But the anti-capitalist media don’t report that. They called Amazon a “sweatshop” and “cutthroat corporate jungle.” So Amazon, to my disappointment, caved. The company announced it would pay all its workers at least $15 per hour.

Of course, the higher wage will be good for workers who still have jobs. But what progressives don’t understand is that entry-level workers will be shut out. Poor people’s lives are made worse when laws meant to protect them price them out of jobs. Those unhired workers are just as real, even if they’re harder to see.

My recent video on this features a restaurant manager who understands that she got the opportunity to work only because when she was a teenager, her boss could pay her much less. Had a higher minimum wage existed then, her labor would not have been worth it to the restaurant, and she wouldn’t have gotten a chance to work her way up the ladder.

“Minimum wage jobs are an entry-level job to get someone some experience,” says California restaurant manager Merv Crist. “Raise that high enough, you cut people out of the market completely!” That’s not compassionate. Yet progressives talk as if a higher minimum wage lifts everyone.

At least Amazon is just one company, and Bezos just one CEO. If he wants to pay his workers more, fine. But then Amazon announced that it would lobby government to force everyone to pay what Amazon pays! This entrepreneur I admired turns out to be just another craven opportunist.

I suppose Bezos is just being clever: He’ll use government to handcuff his rivals — and then pat himself on the back and pander to progressives who believe a higher minimum wage spreads money with no ill effects.

Bezos has done this before. Amazon didn’t just announce it would build a second headquarters. It started a competition to see which politicians would squeeze their taxpayers most. Now taxpayers in New York City and Arlington County, Virginia, will subsidize Amazon’s jobs. This is not good for taxpayers or capitalism.

Politicians shouldn’t pander to companies, and companies shouldn’t pander to politicians. We need separation of shopping and state. Bezos should stick to innovating, not scheming with politicians. Sometimes the worst enemies of capitalism are capitalists.

John Stossel is author of “No They Can’t! Why Government Fails — But Individuals Succeed.”