Billionaires in space
By Betsey Piette posted on July 26, 2021
Centibillionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and multibillionaire Virgin Group founder Richard Branson used the profits they extracted from their companies’ workforce to launch themselves on personal space rides in recent weeks. And centibillionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk is expected to follow.
One thing is clear: None of these billionaires did any of the work that got them into space. All the labor to build their capsules, rocket launchers, launchpads and more was done by workers, whose labor these billionaires exploited.
These same billionaires’ earthly fortunes came from superexploiting workers in their factories, sweatshops and warehouses. They managed to pay little to no taxes to support public services. Nothing of benefit to humankind will come from this.