It’s human nature to want more…but when is it enough? With hundreds of billions of dollars to their name, the world’s wealthiest have little else to wish for in life, well, except for minute pleasures such as health and happiness; however, I’m sure sipping champagne on a private jet must quell any woes that they come across in life.

However, where does the line between financial stability and gross irresponsibility blur? When billionaires such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have enough capital to prevent starvation sixty times over, investing in a new jet hardly seems as an appropriate use of resources. While ambition and ethics may clash, it is up to consumers like us to keep these magnates in check. It is important to be mindful when supporting monopolistic business practices, as lower prices in the present will definitely lead to a steeper cost in the future. Business conglomerates like Amazon charge low prices on its platform, and in doing so, eliminate healthy competition from other businesses. It is because of this, that we as a society should try to invest more in small businesses as a means to promote more variety and healthy competition in the market, benefitting buyers and sellers alike. Otherwise, the market will be reduced to simply filling the pockets of people who truly do not need more wealth.

Furthermore, it is seen that many of these soon to become trillionaires use alleged philanthropy as a means to evade any questioning of their ethics. Take the Gates Foundation for example, while known to be one of the biggest philanthropic organizations in the world, the research conducted by the foundation for the COVID-19 vaccine was kept in limited access, as a means to perpetuate capitalist ego and profit. This in turn, played a role in lengthening the timeline of the pandemic, adding to a global catastrophe rather than serving as a pillar of worldwide aid.

While risk taking, innovation, and individualism are greatly valued, it should not come at the price of solely profiting a select group of people, who have no intent to genuinely give back to society. There is a fine line between ambition and greed, and we as a society need to stop feeding this machine of avarice and monopolization.