Michael Timmons

The single largest form of theft in America is wage theft. $50 billion a year are stolen from American workers. If a billionaire amasses their wealth by underpaying their full-time workers so severely that they must rely on food assistance and government programs to survive, then no, that wealth was not earned by one individual - it was a wealth transfer subsidized by underpaid American workers and the public who get stuck with the bill for large corporations free-riding off our systems. The point is less about individual morality. It’s more about how our current economic reality of shattering inequality rewards screwing over workers and exploiting essential systems at scale. We’re talking monopoly power. Rent-seeking. Wage theft. Profiteering. Stock buybacks. Destabilizing housing markets. Companies using SNAP/EBT to underwrite their wages. Massive government subsidies or contracts to corporations following lobbying and dark money in politics with little to no oversight or accountability. Some people get enraged that I draw attention to this. That’s on them. Let them call me shrill, dumb, inexperienced, girly, uneducated - these folks will say anything to distract from or undercut the truth that working people are getting screwed, and giving people a fair shake means we must have a grown conversation about reigning in abuse of power.

I believe AOC isn’t saying billionaires don’t work hard. She’s questioning the definition of “earn.” Her point is that no individual personally labors their way to a billion dollars alone. That level of wealth comes from ownership, scale, employees, systems, and capital, not just individual effort. Of course not all billionaires have broken rules, abused labor laws or pay less than they are worth... but I bet most of them have walked that line to some extent!