As Billionaires Look Heroic, Bernie Sanders Looks Miserable

This is the moment Bernie Sanders has dreaded. The government can only do so much - because it can only take so much. And the more it takes, the less we have - because that’s where the government gets what it gives.

But billionaires create wealth - and when they help it doesn’t come at someone else’s cost.

Billionaires are doing a lot of helping right now.

Dallas Mavericks owner, Shark Tank judge and billionaire businessman Mark Cuban is using some of his billions to pay the Corona-kiboshed wages of hourly workers at the American Airlines Arena, who’ve effectively lost their jobs because of the bug.

“I reached out the folks at the arena (where the Mavericks play) . . .to find out what it could cost to support, financially support, people who aren’t going  to be able to come to work,” he said. “They get paid by the hour and this was their source of income . . . it’s important to me.”

And to them.

Hedge Fund billionaire Ken Griffin of Citadel Securities has donated $7.5 million toward relief efforts. 

Fashion mogul Giorgio Armani has donated more than $2 million to two hospitals and a research institute in Milan as well as another in Rome. Together with other Italian billionaires such as  Massimiliana Landini Aleotti, who owns the pharmaceutical giant Menarini and Sabrina Benetton of the famous fashion stores, more than $45 million has been raised by Italian billionaires so far to make up for what the virus has cost.

Carnival Cruise chairman Micky Arison - whose ships aren't cruising right now -  has offered the use of several of his ships to serve as floating hospitals, if the need arises. Arison, who also owns the Miami Heat, has donated $1 million of his own money to a fund for people who worked for the franchise who aren't working right now.

Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson - one of America's least-well-known wealthiest men - has closed his casinos until further notice but hasn't given notice to casino employees, who will continue to be paid despite being forced by circumstances not to work.

Former Microsoft CEO and still-billionaire Steve Ballmer has donated seven figures to the Seattle Foundation’s COVID-19 fund to assist people without health insurance or paid sick leave. Ballmer gave another seven figures to All In Seattle, which benefits local non-profits, and $500,000 to United Way. Ballmer has also announced that sports franchise he owns - the LA Clippers - will continue to pay the Staples Center’s hundreds of employees for the rest of the regular NBA season.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and is wife Melinda have pledged even more of their own money  - $100 million to get test kits out and for assistance to those at particular risk.

Multibillionaire Jeff Bezos of Amazon isn't just paying people who can't work right now. He is hiring people to work right now. The online retail giant recently announced it will be adding 100,000 new full and part-time positions across the United States and paying these new workers $2 more per hour. Bezos is also giving $20 million toward the AWS Diagnostic Initiative, which is trying to get COVID-19 test kits to market faster.

And there is also Donald Trump - who has donated his entire 4th quarter salary toward Corona relief. He is the only president in the history of the United States to not take money as president of the United States.

Billionaires haven’t just been giving, either.

According to Business Insider, the cratering of the stock market has cost the world’s 500 wealthiest people at least $100 billion as of early March. This is a sum equivalent to more than the combined net worth of several billionaires, including Bezos.   

But unlike the government, which demands more when its “revenues” decline, these billionaires have been giving more even as they lose more.

And it's not just billionaires, either. 

Half-billionaires like Arnold Schwarzenegger have also been digging deep. The ex-Terminator and onetime-Governator has donated $1 million of his money to a Frontline Responder Fund that is supplying doctors and other health care first-responders with masks, gloves and gowns.

“I never believed in sitting on the couch and complaining about how bad things are," he says. "I always believed we should all do our part to make things better."

Kanye West and other near-billionaires have also been stepping up - when they could just as easily have stepped aside. 

It's an amazing thing - during a difficult time. 

People with money are frequently vilified because they have money, which is an odd thing given the money they have is earned rather than expropriated. Whatever you may think of Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates or other billionaires, none of them ever told you how much you "owed" them on April 15.

And none of them had to be forced to help during this crisis - or used anyone else's money to do the helping.

We owe them a debt. One they'll never ask us to repay.