In April, I wrote an article titled, “Tucker Carlson makes me sad.”
The point of the piece was to argue that the Fox News host has abandoned his obvious talents in favor of a gig as a red-meat carnival barker.
Carlson still makes me sad.
On Thursday, the popular cable news host railed against the CEOs of Amazon, Walmart, and Uber, arguing that they’re too wealthy and too greedy. He also complained that taxpayers are suffering because some Walmart and Amazon employees qualify for food stamps, Medicaid, and housing assistance.
“Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is worth about $150 billion. That’s enough to make him the richest man in the world by far, and possibly the richest human being in all of human history. It’s certainly enough to pay his employees well. But he doesn’t. A huge number of Amazon workers are so poorly paid, they qualify for federal welfare benefits,” Carlson said.
In other words, nobody who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty. I liked it better when Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said it.
“Jeff Bezos isn’t paying his workers enough to eat, so you made up the difference with your tax dollars. Next time you see Jeff Bezos, make certain that he says, ‘Thank you,'” Carlson added.
Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world. Many of his employees are so poor, you’re paying their welfare benefits. And he’s not the only tech billionaire offloading his payroll costs onto taxpayers. This is an indefensible scam. Why is only Bernie talking about it? pic.twitter.com/PdXBfQsHsq
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 31, 2018
The host continued, saying, “What about the Walton family? They founded Walmart. Collectively they are worth about $175 billion. That’s more than the entire gross domestic product of Qatar, the oil-rich Gulf state.”
“The Waltons can certainly afford to be generous with their workers. Instead, they count on you to take up the slack,” Carlson said.
I can’t decide if this is a “at a certain point you’ve made enough money” moment or a “when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody” moment. At any rate, I liked it better when former President Barack Obama said it.
Calson wasn’t finished yet, “And if you think that’s remarkable, meet Travis Kalanick. He’s the youthful founder of Uber. His personal fortune is close to $5 billion. His drivers, by contrast, often make less than minimum wage. One recent study found that many Uber drivers lose money working for the company.”
“It’s not a sustainable business model. The only reason it continues is because of your generosity. Because you’re paying the welfare benefits for Uber’s impoverished drivers. Child billionaires like Travis get to keep buying bigger houses and more airplanes. He’s someone else who owes you a thank-you note,” he added.
Carlson better be careful. New York Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is going to get jealous seeing him horn in on her hypocritical anti-Uber schtick.
Carlson concluded, “If you could think of a less fair system than this, send us an email. We’d love to hear about it. This system is indefensible. And yet, almost nobody ever complains about it. How come?”
“Well, conservatives like us support the free market and for good reason. The free market works, but there’s nothing free about this market. A lot of these companies operate as monopolies. They hate markets. They use government regulation to crush competition. There’s nothing conservative about that, just as there’s nothing conservative about most big corporations. Just the opposite — they’re the backbone of the Left,” he added.
It was only a matter of time before the Fox News populists put their own right-wing spin on the income inequality message championed by the likes of Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, and Obama. That time is now.
