
Bernie Sanders slams Jeff Bezos' lavish wedding with Lauren Sanchez in Venice: ‘This is obscene'
Senator
Bernie Sanders
has criticised Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos
for spending millions on his wedding celebrations in Venice, Italy. Sharing a post on microblogging site X (formerly known as Twitter), Sanders condemned the extravagant spend on the wedding, saying 'This is oligarchy. This is obscene.' He pointed out that while a large number of Americans 'live paycheck to paycheck' and faces issues like hunger, Bezos 'goes to Venice on his $500 million yacht for a $20 million wedding & spends $5 million on a ring'. The comments have added to ongoing protest against Bezos' marriage with fiance
Lauren Sanchez
. Locals and activists have raised concerns about the disruption caused by the extravagant wedding preparations and the impact of overtourism on the historic city.
What Bernie Sanders said about Bezos' lavish wedding
In the X post, Sanders wrote 'This is oligarchy. This is obscene. While 60% live paycheck to paycheck & kids go hungry, Jeff Bezos, worth $230 billion, goes to Venice on his $500 million yacht for a $20 million wedding & spends $5 million on a ring while his real tax rate is just 1.1%. End this oligarchy.'
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Greenpeace joins protest against Jeff Bezos' wedding in Italy
Recently, Greenpeace took part in protests in Venice against the wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. Protesters held a large banner in St. Mark's Square that read, 'IF YOU CAN RENT VENICE FOR YOUR WEDDING YOU CAN PAY MORE TAX'. According to an Associated Press report, local police quickly removed the banner and asked the small group of demonstrators to leave.
The protest is part of the 'No Space for Bezos' campaign, which includes local housing groups, student organisations, and anti-cruise activists. They say the wedding is a symbol of the city's ongoing problems with overtourism and poor local planning. Last week, the group also hung banners from major landmarks and put up posters around the city.
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Because they've made it easy.'), journalist Roxanne Roberts noted that following the 2008 global financial crisis, high-earning bankers who were at the centre of it largely went unpunished in the United States. This gave birth to the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York in 2011, with slogans such as 'We are the 99%'. This cultural shift is also backed by data on increasing income inequality. 'In the 1950s, the average chief executive made 20 times more than their employees; now, chief executives earn 361 times more — about $13 million per year at the country's top corporations,' Roberts wrote. 'This isn't about blaming any specific billionaire, but a growing resentment that the richest people and corporations have somehow managed to get richer while most working stiffs are just one or two missed paychecks away from a food bank… It's a gut feeling that the game is rigged, and the middle class and the poor are losing,' she added. Rishika Singh is a Senior sub-editor at the Explained Desk of The Indian Express. She enjoys writing on issues related to international relations, and in particular, likes to follow analyses of news from China. Additionally, she writes on developments related to politics and culture in India. ... Read More