Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.
If you were a billionaire, what sort of billionaire would you be?
I fancy I'd lurch toward the reclusive side.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, on the other hand, occasionally drifts toward the swashbuckling part of the spectrum.
On Sunday, for example, he had to show Twitter what an exciting vacation he was having in the far north of Norway.
There he was, dog sledding above the Arctic Circle, with the dogs doing all the work and Bezos doing a tiny bit of posing.
Dog sledding above the Arctic Circle in Norway. Jim Lovell says it's not that you go to heaven when you die, but "you go to heaven when you're born." Earth is the best planet in our solar system. We go to space to save the Earth. @BlueOrigin #NoPlanB #GradatimFerociter #EarthDay pic.twitter.com/q0Y9A4KSLm
-- Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 22, 2018
Yes, he wanted to explain that the Earth is worth preserving. It was Earth Day, after all.
Yet the vehicle of his expression wasn't globally warming.
Comedian Sarah Silverman, for example, took the opportunity to remind him of some Amazon employees who were likely not dog sledding.
Why do your employees need to be on food stamps & govt assistance? Be an example of fair payment & take the pressure off the taxpayers who are subsidizing ur lack of fair pay. I KNOW you can do it, Jeff! Don't be like the Waltons of Walmart. https://t.co/CkV6H3KVTM
-- Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) April 22, 2018
She was referring to a recent study by Policy Matters Ohio that suggested that more than 10 percent of the company's Ohio employees were getting assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Amazon itself admitted last week that the median wage at the company was $28,445 last year.
So Silverman wasn't alone in picking up the theme.
Amazon creates lots of jobs but also destroys many! What's the net creation of wealth? See all these closed malls?
-- It's worse (@Its_worse) April 22, 2018
Taxpayers are subsidizing Amazon when his employees must receive benefits to eat.
Indeed, one Twitterer offered an accurate portrayal, some might say, of the hypocrisy that makes us all human.
All these people calling out how evil Bezos is but don't mind shopping at Amazon
-- llliiii (@HowardHM) April 23, 2018
Should, though, billionaires be tweeting their exciting vacations?
I suppose so many look up to them that this sort of thing enhances their image in the eyes of their adorers.
It's but a small step, though, to looking like someone who cares little for his fellow man.
Especially, as Leona Helmsley once delightfully put it, the little people.
Inequality is a pulsating theme currently.
There's a greater awareness than ever that those who have have far, far more than those who don't. Unreasonably more, some would say.
That's perhaps why more than one Twitterer offered this kind of observation.
I hope you're having fun dog sledding, I'm sure you've already forgotten about the human rights abuses that allow you to do stuff like this. Treat your workers better, Jeff. https://t.co/9UAelxwR9x
-- Marshall B. (@E_Razmus) April 22, 2018