NEW YORK (AP) — The world's richest man wanted to say thanks to the people who made his brief trip into space Tuesday possible.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
But for some, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' expression of gratitude went over like a lead rocket.
“I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this,” the 57-year-old Bezos said during a news conference Tuesday after becoming the second billionaire in just over a week to ride in his own spacecraft.
Bezos built Amazon into a shopping and entertainment behemoth but has faced increasing activism within his own workforce and stepped up pressure from critics to improve working conditions.
Labor groups and Amazon workers have claimed that the company offers its hourly employees not enough break times, puts too much reliance on rigid productivity metrics and has unsafe working conditions. An effort to unionize workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama failed earlier this year.
Robert Reich, former secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton and a professor of public policy at University of California, Berkeley, wrote on Twitter that Bezos has crushed unionizing attempts for decades.
“Amazon workers don’t need Bezos to thank them. They need him to stop union busting — and pay them what they deserve," Reich wrote.
Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO in July, allowing him more time for side projects including his space exploration company Blue Origin. He has said he finances the rocket company by selling $1 billion in Amazon stock each year.
After the spaceflight, Bezos awarded $100 million donations through a new philanthropic initiative to both D.C. chef Jose Andres and CNN contributor Van Jones to put towards any charity or nonprofit of their choice. Jones has founded a number of nonprofit organizations and Andres' nonprofit group World Central Kitchen provides meals to people following natural disasters.
Nevertheless, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who is on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, proposed on Tuesday legislation that would tax space travel for non-scientific research purposes.
“Space exploration isn’t a tax-free holiday for the wealthy," said Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat. “Just as normal Americans pay taxes when they buy airline tickets, billionaires who fly into space to produce nothing of scientific value should do the same, and then some."
Others tied his spaceflight to reports that Bezos hasn't paid his fair share of taxes. According to the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica, Bezos paid no income tax in 2007 and 2011.
“Jeff Bezos forgot to thank all the hardworking Americans who actually paid taxes to keep this country running while he and Amazon paid nothing," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., tweeted.
Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce, says it's challenging for Bezos to say where the money from the space trip is coming from without being offensive. He says he should have left out those comments and focused on thanking the Blue Origin team.
“For people who have an issue with inequality and his compensation versus the average employee compensation, this was rocket fuel," Adamson said.
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Follow Anne D’Innocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio
Anne D'innocenzio, The Associated Press
But for some, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' expression of gratitude went over like a lead rocket.
“I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this,” the 57-year-old Bezos said during a news conference Tuesday after becoming the second billionaire in just over a week to ride in his own spacecraft.
Bezos built Amazon into a shopping and entertainment behemoth but has faced increasing activism within his own workforce and stepped up pressure from critics to improve working conditions.
Labor groups and Amazon workers have claimed that the company offers its hourly employees not enough break times, puts too much reliance on rigid productivity metrics and has unsafe working conditions. An effort to unionize workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama failed earlier this year.
Robert Reich, former secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton and a professor of public policy at University of California, Berkeley, wrote on Twitter that Bezos has crushed unionizing attempts for decades.
“Amazon workers don’t need Bezos to thank them. They need him to stop union busting — and pay them what they deserve," Reich wrote.
Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO in July, allowing him more time for side projects including his space exploration company Blue Origin. He has said he finances the rocket company by selling $1 billion in Amazon stock each year.
After the spaceflight, Bezos awarded $100 million donations through a new philanthropic initiative to both D.C. chef Jose Andres and CNN contributor Van Jones to put towards any charity or nonprofit of their choice. Jones has founded a number of nonprofit organizations and Andres' nonprofit group World Central Kitchen provides meals to people following natural disasters.
Nevertheless, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who is on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, proposed on Tuesday legislation that would tax space travel for non-scientific research purposes.
“Space exploration isn’t a tax-free holiday for the wealthy," said Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat. “Just as normal Americans pay taxes when they buy airline tickets, billionaires who fly into space to produce nothing of scientific value should do the same, and then some."
Others tied his spaceflight to reports that Bezos hasn't paid his fair share of taxes. According to the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica, Bezos paid no income tax in 2007 and 2011.
“Jeff Bezos forgot to thank all the hardworking Americans who actually paid taxes to keep this country running while he and Amazon paid nothing," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., tweeted.
Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce, says it's challenging for Bezos to say where the money from the space trip is coming from without being offensive. He says he should have left out those comments and focused on thanking the Blue Origin team.
“For people who have an issue with inequality and his compensation versus the average employee compensation, this was rocket fuel," Adamson said.
____
Follow Anne D’Innocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio
Anne D'innocenzio, The Associated Press
Jeff Bezos thanked Amazon workers for paying for his space flight. For some, the feeling isn't mutual.
tsonnemaker@insider.com (Tyler Sonnemaker,Aleeya Mayo,Charles Davis,Ben Gilbert)
© Joe Raedle/Getty Images Blue Origin's New Shepard crew (L-R) Oliver Daemen, Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos, and Wally Funk held a press conference after their suborbital flight into space on July 20, 2021. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Jeff Bezos thanked Amazon's workers and customers for paying for his Blue Origin space flight.
But some Amazon workers said they want better pay and working conditions, not a thank you.
"He should just go to Jupiter and live his best life there," one worker told Insider.
See more stories on Insider's business page.
After Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos flew into suborbital space for around three minutes on Tuesday, he thanked some of the people who helped send him there: Amazon's employees and customers.
"I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all of this," Bezos said during a post-flight press conference. "Seriously, for every Amazon customer out there, and every Amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my heart very much. It's very appreciated."
For many workers who heard Bezos' comments, the feeling wasn't exactly mutual.
Multiple Amazon employees told Insider there appeared to be little interest in the launch, and that they wished Bezos would have spent the money on virtually anything else, like paying Amazon workers better.
"I heard he was going to space but to be honest, I didn't really care," an employee at Amazon's JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, told Insider, adding: "Me and my coworkers were joking that he should just go to Jupiter and live his best life there."
"People certainly weren't rushing to the TVs to watch," one Amazon warehouse employee in Indiana told Insider. "I guess it was just a big deal for Jeff. We didn't get anything out of it. Twenty-minute flight to space on us basically since we do the work."
Amazon and Blue Origin did not immediately respond to requests for comment on this story.
Most of Bezos' wealth is tied up in roughly 51.7 million shares of Amazon stock he owns, shares that have risen to more than $3,549 apiece since the company's IPO price of $18 in 1997. And Bezos previously said he liquidates around $1 billion worth of Amazon stock per year to fund Blue Origin's operations, so those who have helped Amazon succeed literally did fund Bezos' space ambitions.
But some workers said they've paid for the success of Amazon, and by extension Blue Origin, in other ways that they're not too happy about.
"I guess he's thanking us for putting the money in his pocket to do so by our hard work, sacrificing our bonuses and stock options to make it possible," the Amazon employee in Indiana said. (Amazon's hourly warehouse employees aren't eligible for stock options or bonuses).
"I feel like he just said that because he had a guilty conscience, he knows he's wrong for making money off treating workers like slaves," the Staten Island employee said, referencing the grueling and potentially dangerous conditions some Amazon workers encounter.
Amazon has aggressively fought any efforts by its workers to unionize, despite evidence showing unions typically increase wages and can help address racial and gender pay gaps.
As other critics of Bezos' space flight - like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - pointed out, American taxpayers have also subsidized Amazon and Blue Origin.
Amazon's reliance on a massive network of contract delivery drivers allows it to avoid paying for their healthcare, workers' compensation, and unemployment insurance, and 4,000 of its workers in just nine states rely on food stamps, passing those costs off to taxpayers and other employers whose payments into the social safety net help Amazon workers that have fallen through the cracks.
Amazon workers who spoke to Insider also said they felt Bezos should have spent more of his immense wealth addressing these and other issues instead of pursuing his space ambitions.
"I can think of a lot of other things he could do with all that money he spent on it, better wages for starters, the homeless, the poor, mental health," another current Amazon fulfilment center employee told Insider.
"I think it's selfish of him to be so self-consumed to send himself into space when there are so many homeless and hungry people in the world. He could end homelessness and hunger for everybody in the world and he chooses not to because he's selfish," said Vickie Shannon Allen, a former Amazon employee who became homeless after a workplace injury and a long battle with Amazon over medical expenses.
tsonnemaker@insider.com (Tyler Sonnemaker,Aleeya Mayo,Charles Davis,Ben Gilbert)
© Joe Raedle/Getty Images Blue Origin's New Shepard crew (L-R) Oliver Daemen, Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos, and Wally Funk held a press conference after their suborbital flight into space on July 20, 2021. Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesJeff Bezos thanked Amazon's workers and customers for paying for his Blue Origin space flight.
But some Amazon workers said they want better pay and working conditions, not a thank you.
"He should just go to Jupiter and live his best life there," one worker told Insider.
See more stories on Insider's business page.
After Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos flew into suborbital space for around three minutes on Tuesday, he thanked some of the people who helped send him there: Amazon's employees and customers.
"I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all of this," Bezos said during a post-flight press conference. "Seriously, for every Amazon customer out there, and every Amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my heart very much. It's very appreciated."
For many workers who heard Bezos' comments, the feeling wasn't exactly mutual.
Multiple Amazon employees told Insider there appeared to be little interest in the launch, and that they wished Bezos would have spent the money on virtually anything else, like paying Amazon workers better.
"I heard he was going to space but to be honest, I didn't really care," an employee at Amazon's JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, told Insider, adding: "Me and my coworkers were joking that he should just go to Jupiter and live his best life there."
"People certainly weren't rushing to the TVs to watch," one Amazon warehouse employee in Indiana told Insider. "I guess it was just a big deal for Jeff. We didn't get anything out of it. Twenty-minute flight to space on us basically since we do the work."
Amazon and Blue Origin did not immediately respond to requests for comment on this story.
Most of Bezos' wealth is tied up in roughly 51.7 million shares of Amazon stock he owns, shares that have risen to more than $3,549 apiece since the company's IPO price of $18 in 1997. And Bezos previously said he liquidates around $1 billion worth of Amazon stock per year to fund Blue Origin's operations, so those who have helped Amazon succeed literally did fund Bezos' space ambitions.
But some workers said they've paid for the success of Amazon, and by extension Blue Origin, in other ways that they're not too happy about.
"I guess he's thanking us for putting the money in his pocket to do so by our hard work, sacrificing our bonuses and stock options to make it possible," the Amazon employee in Indiana said. (Amazon's hourly warehouse employees aren't eligible for stock options or bonuses).
"I feel like he just said that because he had a guilty conscience, he knows he's wrong for making money off treating workers like slaves," the Staten Island employee said, referencing the grueling and potentially dangerous conditions some Amazon workers encounter.
Amazon has aggressively fought any efforts by its workers to unionize, despite evidence showing unions typically increase wages and can help address racial and gender pay gaps.
As other critics of Bezos' space flight - like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - pointed out, American taxpayers have also subsidized Amazon and Blue Origin.
Amazon's reliance on a massive network of contract delivery drivers allows it to avoid paying for their healthcare, workers' compensation, and unemployment insurance, and 4,000 of its workers in just nine states rely on food stamps, passing those costs off to taxpayers and other employers whose payments into the social safety net help Amazon workers that have fallen through the cracks.
Amazon workers who spoke to Insider also said they felt Bezos should have spent more of his immense wealth addressing these and other issues instead of pursuing his space ambitions.
"I can think of a lot of other things he could do with all that money he spent on it, better wages for starters, the homeless, the poor, mental health," another current Amazon fulfilment center employee told Insider.
"I think it's selfish of him to be so self-consumed to send himself into space when there are so many homeless and hungry people in the world. He could end homelessness and hunger for everybody in the world and he chooses not to because he's selfish," said Vickie Shannon Allen, a former Amazon employee who became homeless after a workplace injury and a long battle with Amazon over medical expenses.
Jeff Bezos' Penis-Shaped Rocket Launches Dr. Evil Comparisons
Andi Ortiz
The New Shepard spacecraft carrying Jeff Bezos and three other passengers successfully completed its space flight Tuesday morning. It was a brief journey, but an exciting one, drawing 600,000 viewers to the live stream on YouTube.
Andi Ortiz
The New Shepard spacecraft carrying Jeff Bezos and three other passengers successfully completed its space flight Tuesday morning. It was a brief journey, but an exciting one, drawing 600,000 viewers to the live stream on YouTube.
TheWrap rocket jeff bezos dr. evil penis dick jokes
But, watching the launch and getting a clear look at the rocket that would get Bezos and his team there, some people could only think of one thing: Austin Powers. Or rather, one very specific scene from "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me".
For those who don't remember, in the 1999 film, Dr. Evil's plan — which he dubbed "The Alan Parsons Project" — is to take over the world using a giant "laser" on the moon. He intends to fire it at the White House, unless they pay him an obscene amount of money (which doesn't even actually exist at that point, since he's traveled back in time).
Of course, before he can fire the "laser," Dr. Evil has to get to his moon base. Naturally, to get to space, one has to take a rocket. Here's how that went:
Once people saw it, it was all they could see. Throughout the morning, the Dr. Evil comparisons kept landing. You can check out more belo
But, watching the launch and getting a clear look at the rocket that would get Bezos and his team there, some people could only think of one thing: Austin Powers. Or rather, one very specific scene from "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me".
For those who don't remember, in the 1999 film, Dr. Evil's plan — which he dubbed "The Alan Parsons Project" — is to take over the world using a giant "laser" on the moon. He intends to fire it at the White House, unless they pay him an obscene amount of money (which doesn't even actually exist at that point, since he's traveled back in time).
Of course, before he can fire the "laser," Dr. Evil has to get to his moon base. Naturally, to get to space, one has to take a rocket. Here's how that went:
Once people saw it, it was all they could see. Throughout the morning, the Dr. Evil comparisons kept landing. You can check out more belo
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