Jeff Bezos took Amazon from an online bookstore he founded in his garage in 1994 to the number one company on the Fortune 500. His own net worth also skyrocketed, reaching $372 billion and making him the second-richest person in the world.
However, the 62-year-old says people who view extreme wealth like his as a bad thing have learned to view success in the wrong way.
“I think we live in an environment where some people have been taught, I think incorrectly, but taught… this whole sort of oppressive/oppressed framework, and (that) success is evil,” Bezos recently told Fox News.
“Success is not meanness. You can become a billionaire if you open a hamburger stand.”
Bezos explained how someone could start with a simple food stand with a dozen employees, grow it into a company with thousands of locations and employees, and ultimately become a billionaire.
“That’s how it works,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with making incredibly good chicken that people love. And that doesn’t make him a bad person.”
As Americans Question Billionaires’ Wealth, Jeff Bezos Calls for Fighting Affordability
Many people, especially younger generations, might disagree with Bezos’ assessment. About 18% of Americans consider being extremely wealthy to be “morally wrong,” a figure that nearly doubles to about 33% among Gen Z adults ages 18 to 29, according to a 2025 Pew Research study.
This skepticism comes as billionaires’ wealth continues to skyrocket. In 2025, the wealth of the world’s billionaires will reach a record $18.3 trillion, according to Oxfam. Meanwhile, the American dream of buying a home seems increasingly out of reach for many households, especially younger Americans struggling with housing costs.
Bezos, for his part, acknowledged that the country faces real affordability issues. But he argued that voters should be wary of politicians who focus on accountability rather than underlying problems.
“You can’t pretend there aren’t problems,” he said. “Young people look at the cost of housing and think, ‘I have to live two hours from the city. I can’t live close to my job.'”
It’s the same problem-solving approach he expects from the leaders of his own companies.
“If there was someone at Amazon or Blue Origin or Prometheus, an executive at any of my companies, instead of working on a root cause and a real solution, all they did was point fingers and blame people, we would quickly leave them,” Bezos said. “They wouldn’t stay there long.”
Earlier this year, Bezos floated a proposal to ease the tax burden on low-income Americans, suggesting that the bottom half of American income earners — about 76 million households — should pay no federal income tax.
“The bottom half of income earners in this country only pay 3% in taxes,” Bezos told CNBC in May. “I think it should be zero.”
The billionaire talked about a hypothetical healthcare worker in Queens who makes $75,000 a year but pays more than $1,000 a month in taxes.
“To me, it’s a little absurd that we’re doing this,” Bezos said. “We shouldn’t be asking that nurse from Queens to send money to Washington. They should send her an apology. It really doesn’t make any sense.”
From Howard Schultz to Jamie Dimon, billionaire CEOs agree with Bezos that success shouldn’t be vilified
Bezos isn’t the only one who objects to the idea that success — and the billions of dollars that can come with it — should be seen as inherently bad.
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who has about $3.4 billion to his name, also argued that his fortune reflected years of hard work rather than an unfair advantage.
“That ‘billionaire’ nickname, let’s go with it, shall we? Schultz said during a heated U.S. Senate committee hearing in 2023. “I grew up in federally subsidized housing; my parents never owned a home; I came from nothing. I thought my whole life was based on achieving the American dream. Yes, I have billions of dollars. I earned them. Nobody gave them to me.”
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who has a net worth of around $3 billion, has also acknowledged concerns about wealth inequality while opposing the idea that wealthy people should be vilified simply because of their success.
Dimon said 60 minutes in 2019: “I think you should vilify Nazis, but you shouldn’t vilify people who worked hard to achieve things. »
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