"Groceries" ... a strange word?

Yes … to butler-served, silver spoon-fed billionaires

Listen here as he defines groceries

There are people in the world who have never shopped for groceries, planned a meal, stretched a budget, or postponed dental care because of the expense. (Rich kids don’t get cavities; they get veneers.) Some of those people are billionaires and 13 or more of them are making policy for the 350 million of us who do not live above the yacht-line.

Recently, the figure-head of American government (whose main job is distracting attention away from ghouls Russ Vought and Stephen Miller) spoke about how he has started using an “old-fashioned” word … “groceries.” At first I didn’t think that much about it, but then I began to wonder what kind of person would be tantalized by that particular word so familiar to the rest of us. Fortunately, the video above explains it all.

All but one thing: Why do we keep electing people who have no idea how most of us live and what we need to stay healthy and productive?

I wouldn’t have anything against people making a lot of money if they didn’t think they should get to keep it all rather than pay the workers what they deserve as well as they legitimately pay the taxes needed to keep our infrastructure and systems in shape to support their enormous need for resources.

Back in the mid 90s when I was deeply involved with corporate innovation and creativity, a story captured the attention of many of us. A young couple drove across country; she drove while he wrote a business plan in the back seat. When they reached Seattle, they launched that business to a lot of doubt about the viability of a mail order bookstore. But, it grew, went public ($54 million), grew into a “long-tail” operation and withstood a whole lot of flack for not making a profit for many years.

I loved that story until it became clear that the gushing profits came at the cost of adverse and harsh working conditions for thousands of workers. Over the years I’ve felt like a distant aunt watching a bright, young nephew turn into a greedy, ego-driven, shell of a human. What a yacht, though!

Bezos’ superyacht, Koru, is 417 feet long (a football field is 360 feet long) and comes with its own tagalong vessel (with helipad) which is 246 feet long. Recently Bezos and his fiance, Lauren Sánchez, yachted to Cannes where she was recognized for her efforts on climate change and biodiversity loss.

Estimates are that Koru emits over 7,000 tons of carbon per year. Maybe Lauren’s work offsets all that carbon?

And Bezos’ space efforts? Curious.Earth reports: “As well as being a huge greenhouse gas emitter, the space tourism industry is very inaccessible to most people. Tickets to last week’s Blue Origin trip required $150,000 for a deposit alone. In the midst of global political unrest, a climate catastrophe, and the cost of living crisis, it’s no surprise that an interstellar media stunt in a Trump-adjacent billionaire’s rocket hasn’t been too well received!”

(In the small change category: maintenance for Koru is estimated at $30 MILLION per year.)

Jeff Bezos’ “Koru” - largest sailing yacht in the world

What about the $10 Billion Bezos Earth Fund set up to help meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals targeted for 2030? While that sounds good … it may be getting trumped also.

Perplexity.ai reports: “Jeff Bezos’s proximity to Trump has coincided with observable changes in the tone and actions of the Bezos Earth Fund, but the fund itself maintains that its core environmental initiatives are continuing as planned.

Several notable developments have raised questions about the fund’s direction:

• Reduced or Ended Support for Key Climate Efforts: The Bezos Earth Fund has halted its funding for the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a leading body for corporate climate accountability. While the fund states that this was simply the end of a three-year grant and not a policy shift, external observers and researchers have expressed concern that this decision aligns with a broader trend of wealthy individuals and corporations backing away from climate action in response to Trump’s anti-climate rhetoric.

• Silence on Trump’s Climate Policy Rollbacks: Bezos and other billionaire climate funders have largely avoided publicly criticizing Trump’s environmental policy rollbacks, such as withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and dismantling climate protections. This contrasts with their more vocal opposition during Trump’s first term25.

• Removal of Justice40 Initiative from Fund’s Website: The Bezos Earth Fund removed references to the Biden-era Justice40 initiative after Trump revoked the federal program, though the fund maintains its commitment to environmental justice through other means.

“While the Bezos Earth Fund continues to announce new grants and initiatives—such as the AI Grand Challenge for Climate and Nature—the fund’s public posture has become more cautious, and some of its previous high-profile partnerships have ended. Observers suggest that Bezos’s proximity to Trump may be influencing the fund’s willingness to publicly champion climate causes that are out of step with the current political climate, even if its private commitments remain intact.

“In summary, Bezos’s closer relationship with Trump appears to be affecting the fund’s public strategy and choice of partners, but the fund’s core environmental initiatives have not been formally abandoned. Instead, the fund is operating more cautiously, with less visible support for climate policies that may conflict with Trump’s agenda.”

In spite of Bezos, his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott is showing the world what a billionaire can do. She has signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away at least half of her wealth over the course of her lifetime. (Now about $30 Billion.) In a website called Yield Giving, Scott shares details of the $17.3 billion (53% of her Amazon shares) she has given to more than 2,300 nonprofits.

All of this is not to say that billionaires don’t have hard times … I mean, where are they going to send their kids to college now that Harvard has been trumped?