Matthew Scott, Esq., LLM

Jeff Bezos explains to @AOC how billionaires are created: providing at least a billion dollars in value to society -- the opposite of exploitation. Bezos: "Let me give you a simple example. Let’s say you start a burger joint, and you have 10 employees, and you make a little bit of money.” SORKIN: “Right.” Bezos: “Until you have — this is — this just one — one outlet. And by the way, these are the most delicious burgers in the world. People love your burgers, Andrew. And so then, you open a second outlet —” SORKIN: “Right.” Bezos: “— and now you’re making a little bit more money, and you have 20 employees. Nd you open a third outlet. By the time you’ve opened a thousand outlets, you are a billionaire.” SORKIN: “Right.” Bezos: “And by the way, this is a real life story, it happens all the time, it’s In-N-Out Burger, it’s Raising Cane’s Chicken. At what point did that money all of a sudden become unethical, or it didn’t? There was one outlet, and then there were two, and then there were three. What you’re doing — the way — the way you make a billion dollars, or a hundred million dollars, or 10 million dollars, or anything, is you create a service that people love. And if millions of people choose your service, you’re going to end up with a billion dollars.” SORKIN: “Right.” Bezos: “And you can, you know, just try it with a chicken franchise.” SORKIN: “Do you think though —” Bezos: “But your chicken has to be good.”