The Bezos divorce: when's the last time there's been such widespread national fascination with what amounts to celebrity gossip? It's not their looks. It must be the money involved.
Much of the interest has centered on speculation as to the settlement that MacKenzie Bezos is likely to receive. My two cents say that—assuming no prenup—she's in the catbird seat, given the length of marriage, her support for her husband's creation of Amazon, and the salacious details of his affair that have emerged.
Inevitably, the divorce has become fodder for advancing policies unrelated to core issues of marriage, divorce, and fidelity. And in the Age of Ocasio-Cortez—she who has revived the hoary notion of confiscatory tax rates—it was inevitable that some liberal in the media would seize on the divorce as justification for soaking the rich.
Enter Ryan Cooper, a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. The actual title of his column: "The real lesson of Jeff Bezos' divorce drama? Soak the rich." Give the guy credit for candor, if not for an understanding of our founding documents or of economics.
Cooper claims that the divorce "is a good piece of evidence in the case for confiscatory top marginal tax rates." He is infuriated that the Bezos's control such wealth. And like all good liberals, he has ideas for better things to do with their money, if only the government controlled it. He offers as an example building a "high-speed rail system in the Northeast corridor." Perhaps the geniuses behind California's failed system could be imported.
Ironically, Cooper quotes the Declaration of Independence, and its recognition that people are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." But Cooper clearly fails to understand the meaning of that phrase, as he complains:
"It's still a problem to let any one person — with no democratic accountability and little oversight — to command that much wealth."
No "democratic accountability?" What does that even mean? Does Cooper perhaps envision a Department of Democratic Accountability, which will decide how much money each rich people will be allowed to keep?
The existence of very rich people is only a "problem" if you believe wealth belongs to the government, not to the people who earn it, and if you believe in equality of outcome, not opportunity. Instead of the Declaration of Independence, Cooper apparently subscribes to this notion: "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."
Remind me: who said that?
PS: Cooper has a podcast called "Left Anchor," where they discuss "the disgusting immorality of capitalism."
