Guest Opinion: The new age of the robber barons

Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson spend millions developing space tourism for the rich, blasting themselves and rich customers into brief joyrides into space. This wasteful extravagance is yet another reminder that income inequality has reached new heights of obscenity. And the media covers this ostentatious vulgarity with such starry-eyed sycophancy.

Millions of people on Earth lack the basics of food, housing and medical care. We race blindly to our species' extinction due to human-induced climate change. We are in the middle of a pandemic that has killed millions of people and billions are still unvaccinated.

Here in the United States, millions who could be vaccinated for free refuse to do so in great part due to the Republican Party’s self-serving politicization and anti-science ideology. And here in Pennsylvania we shamelessly have had a poverty minimum wage of $7.25 an hour for over 10 years.

No space rides for you wage slaves; get back to work making Bezos rich in his “fulfillment” centers. What does this say about us as a society and its moral focus?

The billionaires’ focus is rather on spending their mountains of cash to give rich people more jollies. And the mega-corporations continue to not even pay any federal taxes. Thank goodness President Biden is trying to make the rich pay their fair share, but of course he has to fight the Republicans tooth and nail for this no-brainer.

So, enjoy the television visions of rich people having fun in space while you workers, without billions of dollars, contend with trying to afford health care, child care, and pre-K and college education for your children and will soon be struggling to survive from the adverse, often deadly, effects of climate change.

President Biden is also fighting to help you on these issues with his Build Back Better program, but of course he has to fight the Republicans for this as well.

Yes, the billionaires have a ticket to ride, but you workers clearly will never ever get off the ground.

Steve Cickay is a resident of Newtown.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Guest Opinion: The new age of the robber barons