| | | "You paid for this" — that's what Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, told his employees as he went off to space in a trip that cost $2.5 million per minute. During this pandemic, the super rich got richer by using loopholes to avoid getting taxed! Bezos and fellow billionaires are under the spotlight for their space exploration achievements -- let's make this moment a launching pad for a global call to ensure they pay their fair share of taxes now: | | | | | Dear friends, | | "You paid for this" — that's what Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, told his employees as he went off to space in a trip that cost $2.5 million per minute!
This is not a sign of progress -- it's a statement of how inequality shot up with the pandemic.
While our precious Earth is burning, ice caps are melting and people are struggling in a way we have not seen since the Great Depression, the super rich are getting richer while paying almost $0 in taxes with the blessing of our governments.
We must end this! If they have money to play with rocket ships, they certainly should have it to pay their taxes!
Let's call them out now -- while Bezos and the world's super rich are under the spotlight, millions of us can urge our government to do the right thing, and tax the mega rich: | | | | | Of course space exploration matters, especially for scientific purposes. For example, it was pivotal to climate studies! And the more we see ourselves from a distance, the more we may realize we are small, fragile and in need of urgent protection. But that's not what Bezos and his cronies are doing. They are continuing to carve out a special path for the super rich, even considering the places they will escape to when Earth gets unlivable. That's not noble, it's disgraceful.
By making sure the super rich are paying their fair share of taxes, like any of us do, we could transform our global society: and direct billions to pay for all kids to be in school, ensure the whole world is vaccinated against Covid, support vulnerable countries to help mitigate the climate and biodiversity loss crisis and so much more.
But this money is partly not available simply because we do not have equitable corporate or wealth tax -- and billionaires keep using loopholes to protect their wealth. We can't allow our governments to turn a blind eye to that anymore.
Right now, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and many others are getting massive media attention for their space tourism trips -- and this is how we bring them down to Earth! Sign the petition and share with everyone: | | | | Famous astronomer and scientist Carl Sagan once said:
"It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
In a certain way, that is what the Avaaz community has been doing for the past 15 years. We're fighting for the pale blue dot, our Earth, our only home. Let's take that inspiration and use it to pressure these space explorers to do the right thing.
With hope and deeply inspired by this community,
Diego, Marta, Chris, Nell, Alice and the rest of the Avaaz team | | | | | | |
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