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The student website of Van Nuys High School
Van Nuys, California
The Student News Site of Van Nuys High School

The Mirror

The Student News Site of Van Nuys High School

The Mirror

Billionaires are evil, and you’ll NEVER be one

The chances of anyone becoming a billionaire is next to impossible, yet the fact that it isn’t impossible gives people the hope of becoming one.
Billionaires.+They+profit+off+their+employees+who+earn+minimum-wage.+
Diego Aguirre
Billionaires. They profit off their employees who earn minimum-wage.

Rotterdam is dismantling a bridge.

It’s not to help any of its Dutch residents. In fact, the deconstruction only benefits one man: Jeff Bezos.

He wants his 417-foot length, $500 million superyacht, Y721, to pass through for a summer vacation and the historic architecture is just too inconvenient.

Society is often forced to bend to the whims of the ultrawealthy who have so much money to spend and yet they’d still promptly kill someone if it meant they could have more.

Billionaires have become a new sort of diety in our society.

Worshippers are convinced that if they work hard enough they’ll be just as rich too.

But people like Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook billionaire and Elon Musk, Tesla billionaire, didn’t work day and night and magically make a million dollars; they already came from already-wealthy upbringings.

Jeff Bezos went to Princeton and got a $300,000 investment from his parents to start Amazon. Zuckerberg went to Harvard. Elon Musk inherited money that his father made from an emerald mine during the apartheid era in South Africa. They started off far better than most Americans.

And their generational wealth isn’t the only reason they’re that rich. They’ve grown their wealth off exploitation, corruption and hoarding of resources.

Billionaires pay their workers far less than what their labor produces and pocket the profits. The richer these people get, the bigger the gap between the pay of the worker and the owner gets.

Bezos spent millions to stop workers in Alabama from unionizing. A drop in the bucket to him.

The average Amazon worker gets paid $12 to $48 per hour while Bezos gets paid $8.6 million per hour. But who’s delivering your Prime packages? Bezos or a minimum-wage worker?

During the pandemic, when people were losing jobs and living off a measly $2000 stimulus check that didn’t cover rent or being forced to work under harsh, dangerous circumstances and putting themselves at risk of contracting covid-19, which resulted in the highest unemployment rate in years, billionaires’ wealth grew by 62 percent.

Rich people always profit off other people’s suffering.

Even if become a billionaire could be ethical, what’s the reason to have all that money? You’ve accumulated enough resources for you and your family to live financially stable for generations, hundreds of times over.

The excess money these billionaires have could pay to remedy so many societal issues. Hunger, homelessness, healthcare, infrastructure could all be fixed, and they would still have millions left over.

So many Americans are plagued by the fantasy of the American Dream, thinking they can make it if they just work hard enough, while judging those who are poor as just lazy and looking for someone to blame their failures on.

The chances of anyone becoming a billionaire is next to impossible, yet the fact that it isn’t impossible gives people the hope of becoming one. This mentality traps them in this unjust system.

They’ll tell you to pull yourself by your bootstraps, quit wasting your time and money on that $2 coffee, work your way out of poverty and you’ll succeed.

You can work super hard at your job to get that promotion but all you’ll be doing is feeding more wealth into the pockets of a billionaire who doesn’t care about you enough to pay you a livable wage.

And remember, capitalists own capital. Worshipping Elon Musk doesn’t make you a capitalist if you don’t even make enough to live on your own.

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About the Contributors
Gabriel Castillo, Staff Writer
Gabriel Castillo is an Entertainment writer for The Mirror. They are a senior in their first year of journalism. Gabriel likes to play video games to relax, especially the “Devil May Cry” series. They also likes to play volleyball and read informational books in his free time. Gabriel wants to travel the world especially Mexico, Cuba and Vietnam. Gabriel is passionate about helping people in recovering countries such as in South America and the Middle East.
Ani Tutunjyan, Executive Editor & Print Editor-in-Chief
Ani Tutunjyan the Executive Editor and Print Editor-in-Chief for The Mirror. She joined the program in her freshman year as a Current Events writer and she is now in her fourth year of publication as a senior. Ani has won a number of regional and national awards for her News and Features writing. Outside of journalism, she is involved in TASSEL Cambodia and Operation Period. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music and cooking.  She would love to go to Italy to experience the rich history and beautiful architecture. Ani intends to major in law or journalism when she applies to colleges this fall.
Diego Aguirre, Layout/Graphic Designer
Diego Aguirre is a Salvadoran immigrant who is a graphic designer in his first year of journalism as a senior. He is also a digital illustrator. His work has appeared in the print edition over the last two years. When he is not busy making the next design for a piece or fixing templates, watching motorsports — F1, WEC, and NASCAR — take up his time, alongside his art and mechanical studies. Currently a member of SkillsUSA, he also sings in the choir among the many activities that fill his schedule and that make his life busy and fun.
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    John RicadesAug 29, 2022 at 12:48 am

    A chain is only as strong as its weakest link – this means inferiority is what controls society.
    Those who use inferiority as a means of control are called “inferiors” irrespective of their wealth.
    Inferiority is the root of all evil; and money is the ideal resource used to implement inferioristic control.
    Power in the hands of inferiors breeds evil, which is what the rich are.

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