Warren, Sanders Target Bezos's $10 Million Met Gala Spend as Mamdani Shames Griffin
Updated
Updated · Reason · May 15
Warren, Sanders Target Bezos's $10 Million Met Gala Spend as Mamdani Shames Griffin
2 articles · Updated · Reason · May 15
Jeff Bezos drew fresh attacks after sponsoring the Met Gala for $10 million, with Elizabeth Warren saying the spending showed he could pay more tax and Bernie Sanders pairing it with his $290 billion fortune.
Sanders also cited Bezos's $120 million penthouse, $500 million yacht and a claim that Amazon could replace 600,000 workers with robots, while Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argued billionaires cannot truly "earn" that wealth.
In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani used a video promoting a pied-a-terre tax to single out hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin by name outside his penthouse, extending the same anti-billionaire message beyond Washington.
The criticism reflects a broader progressive push to "tax the rich," framing ultrawealth as evidence of exploitation rather than focusing only on tax rates or specific policy design.
With billionaires fleeing high-tax states, could new wealth taxes actually result in a net loss of revenue?
As billionaires legally avoid taxes with 'buy-borrow-die,' why has this multi-billion dollar loophole remained open?
Can society have billionaire-driven innovation without the extreme wealth inequality it seems to create?