Ah, to be Jeff Bezos. Amazon’s founder, the richest man to have ever walked the earth, is now personally worth more than such marquee names as Nike and McDonald’s.
Bezos’ net wealth also exceeds Starbucks, is greater than the market capitalization of 13 of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average and eclipses “the vast majority of the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 companies,” according to news reports.
How astonishing is it that one man can amass $180 billion in net wealth and significantly add to his fortune during a pandemic? Who would have thought that Fortune 500 companies would be rounding errors in Jeff Bezos’ portfolio? Or that a hefty divorce agreement made his ex-wife a multi-, multi-, multibillionaire but did not send him clipping coupons for the grocery store?
To view Bezos as just an extremely wealthy man obscures an important part of a dynamic economy. Over time, economic disruption, either by pandemic or innovation, punishes old business ways and rewards newer ones. And while no one wished for a devastating pandemic that has businesses and workers in the Main Street economy struggling to adapt and survive, this also could be the opportunity for the government, individuals and businesses to rethink their tactics. If we emerge from this pandemic intent on returning to old ways, then we will have missed a golden opportunity to build a more resilient society.
Bezos’ success epitomizes the importance of entrepreneurism, the creative forces that develop the products and services that a radical new economic landscape demands. Meeting this challenge made Bezos wealthy, as it did Microsoft’s Bill Gates and countless pioneers who found answers before the rest of us knew to ask the question.
Those breakthroughs created jobs and prosperity, and while it is legitimate to ask tough questions about market power, privacy and other issues, the answer isn’t to hinder innovation with shortsighted legislation such as breaking up technology giants. Free-market principles that made these entrepreneurs rich and our nation successful must remain in our DNA.
Bezos’ genius, for example, was to facilitate convenience at a time when brick-and-mortar stores dominated retailing. Bezos created an online logistics company that could deliver pretty much everything American consumers could think of buying, and a few things we didn’t think we needed until an algorithm suggested it.
His insight vastly changed the shopping habits of tens of millions of consumers. When the coronavirus pandemic kept us home, the convenience of shopping at home — from food to masks — became a godsend.
When all of us finally step up and do what it takes to defeat the spread of the coronavirus, the world will not be the same as it was when 2020 started. The pandemic already has forced adjustments and also despair, as evidenced by record unemployment and jaw-dropping decimation of gross domestic product in the second quarter. Our response requires forward-thinking to create wealth, jobs and productivity. Our human capital — whether it is a tech lab or in the creative small businesses on Main Street — must be aided, protected and encouraged. Aspiring to normalcy — whatever that now means — is a look backward, not forward.
The road to the future must not U-turn to the past. Competitive advantages no longer exist in many industries and business models face new market truths. The world is changing, and requires new ideas and ways of doing business.
If wealth is a scorecard, then Bezos has lapped the field many times over. The opportunities for innovation that made Bezos and Gates billionaires and world changers must not become casualties of this crisis. The consumer tech sector directly and indirectly supports 18.2 million American jobs, provides $1.3 trillion in annual wages, contributes $503 billion in annual taxes and adds $2.3 trillion to the nation’s economy or about 12% of U.S. GDP, according to a report last year by the Consumer Technology Association.
If we emerge from this pandemic intent on returning to old ways, then we will have missed a golden opportunity to build a more resilient society.
— Dallas Morning News
