While millions of people around the world are struggling to afford basic necessities like food, healthcare, and shelter, and nature destruction skyrockets, the Blue Origin company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has been launching super-rich people and their friends into space on joy rides that cost tens of millions of dollars.
At a time when the world is facing growing economic inequality and extreme impacts of the climate crisis, the idea that the super-rich can spend these vast amounts of money for a few minutes in space just to realise “we need to protect Mother Earth” feels incredibly out of touch. The inequality and climate impact gap between the super-rich and the rest of us is widening, and space joyrides are the epitome of it.
Much like their private jets, these space joyrides are a blatant display of excess and a polluting lifestyle for luxury and convenience. These vanity space rides are marketed as advancements for humanity, but they in reality highlight the disconnection between those who can afford to literally reach for the stars, and those who are directly impacted by extreme weather events and inequality.
A distraction from the people and planet’s needs
The latest Blue Origin space ride was the first all-female space team in 60 years and was aiming to inspire women with a “you can achieve anything” message. But why would we be inspired by a vanity ride to space? Nothing significant has been achieved for regular people. Women are still being hit the hardest by the impacts of the climate and nature crisis. Entire communities are being torn apart by increasingly frequent and devastating climate disasters. Natural resources are depleting, and our planet is facing irreversible damage.
We must hold the super-rich accountable and redistribute the resources to build a fair, sustainable future for all. We need global tax rules that work for regular people, not multinational corporations and the super-rich. No more joy rides into space. No more hoarding extreme wealth while communities burn and people struggle to make ends meet.
If the super-rich can afford to take a ride to space, surely they can afford to pay their fair share of taxes.
We’re constantly told there’s “not enough money” to solve these global crises. The truth is that the money is there, it’s just in the wrong pockets. There’s more than enough wealth to fix these problems but it’s hoarded by a small percentage of people who profit off exploitation, pollution, and systemic inequality. It’s time we demand that those who pollute the most and have benefited from this broken system step up and contribute their fair share, like all of us.
If governments taxed the super-rich, we could build a more just and green future for everyone: where families aren’t forced to choose between putting food on the table and keeping their homes warm, where people could have access to quality public services, affordable healthcare, green homes and sustainable public transportation.
Take action now to #TaxTheSuperRich!
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The richest 1% have captured twice as much wealth as the 99% of the world’s population, between 2020 and 2023. The Finance Bill in Kenya would have ONLY managed to collect 2.68 billion dollars from the average person. While 480 BILLION DOLLARS are lost to tax abuse by billionaires and multinationals (including big oil corporations).
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