Bill Maher accuses Amazon of being anti capitalist
American comedian, political commentator and television host, Bill Maher, has taken a swing at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in the latest episode of his Real Time With Bill Maher show.
This was prompted by the news that Bezos is set to become the first ever member of the trillionaire club.
“We now live in an age not of innovation but of domination,” Maher said. “Startups are in a 13 year slump and financing is down 22% from eight years ago because, in the online marketplace, Amazon has become the only game in town. And that was before an event happened that made everyone stay home and order everything online.”
“Yeah, I mean, predictably, once the coronavirus hit and America locked itself upstairs like a babysitter hiding from a slasher, sure, of course, the rest of the economy cratered. But Amazon’s stock price is up 25%. That’s what I call asymptomatic.”
Maher stated that, if something isn’t done, “we’re gonna come out of our holes and discover that there’s only one store and it knows where you live.”
“You might be surprised to learn that Elizabeth Warren had a plan to break up Amazon. And I say let’s go for it,” Maher said. “Like Sen. Warren, I’m a capitalist to my core, but when a company gets so big it smothers all competitors in the crib, that’s anti-capitalist.”
“Like when Amazon destroyed the startup Diapers.com by cutting Amazon’s own diaper costs below cost. By one estimate, Bezos lost $100 million in his quest to corner the online diaper market. But he owns it now. Which raises the question: What is wrong with this man?”
Bezos had one brilliant idea, Maher argued, namely that when people get drunk at home they’ll go online and buy stuff they don’t need. “Great, congratulations, you won; you’re the best at making money. But one of the rules of the game of capitalism is you can win big, but not so big there’s no game.”
Maher concluded: “Maybe this is just the hunter-gatherer in me speaking, but someday I hope to leave the cave again and I’m gonna want to shop somewhere in person.”
“So this weekend, be a hero and go out to an actual store and patronise some other business besides Amazon. And let’s see if we can’t get America back on its feet again. Because we’re looking pretty raggedy, and you know the old saying: if the shoe fits, you probably didn’t get it online.”
Amazon did not respond to our request for comment.