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Billionaires playing a game they can’t win

The frenzy of the gift-giving season is over. Children have received their toys. Billionaires, too.

Do you remember that old bumper sticker that said, “He who dies with the most toys wins. More money, more things is winning at the Game of Life”?

Topping the Forbes list of billionaires, the ones who can afford the most toys, are Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison. And how have they shown their holiday spirit over the years?

Musk threatened to leave Tesla unless the board granted him a pay package potentially worth over $1 trillion, roughly the annual GDP of Switzerland. He headed up President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency where he slashed the U.S. Agency for International Development’s budget for medicine and food. According to a tracker maintained by a Boston University professor, those cuts have caused over 700,000 deaths this year, including almost half a million children. As Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said, “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one.”

In his book, “Zucked,” investor Roger McNamee describes how Facebook CEO Zuckerberg ignored warnings about the rise of Russian meddling on the company’s platform during the 2016 presidential campaign. The recent bestseller “Careless People” by Sarah Wynn-Williams, Facebook’s former director of public policy, describes how Zuckerberg chose profits over lives when he did nothing to stop Facebook from being used to incite the violence against Myanmar’s Muslim minority.

In a special gift to low-income families, Zuckerberg’s foundation announced this year that it is shutting down a 10-year-old tuition-free school for low-income students located near Facebook headquarters and his home. Zuckerberg’s estimated wealth exceeds $220 billion.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, bought The Washington Post for $250 million and gave it free rein to report on the Trump administration during his first term. According to a 2019 lawsuit, Amazon lost a $10 billion Pentagon contract after to Trump vowed to “screw Amazon” in retaliation for the paper’s coverage. Four years later, Bezos later sat in the front row at Trump’s inauguration ceremony after Amazon donated $1 million to the inaugural committee. A month later he announced the Post’s opinion pages would pivot to a more right-wing tack, writing daily in support of “personal liberties and free markets.” Amazon also paid $40 million for Melania Trump’s documentary, almost three times more than the next highest bidder. Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, is also lobbying to increase its NASA contracts.

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