Summary: While Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, “I have a dream,” it was full of lofty ethical stuff like “justice for all” and… well, it was so 1963. But in today’s Facebook-Instagram-Google world of billionaire ethics and expectations, dreams need to glitter with a 2021-ish grandiosity to go viral. So, who better to take us there than that visionary of instant gratification, Jeff Bezos? “Ever since I was five years old,” says the mega-billionaire boss man of Amazon, “I’ve dreamed of traveling to space.” Now that’s intriguing, because Jeff regularly acts like he is from outer space – so, is this homeward bound? Bezos can certainly afford the ticket, for today’s global pandemic has delivered a financial windfall to him, increasing his personal wealth by $75 billion last year alone. Bear in mind that he didn’t have to work harder or smarter to “earn” this bonanza. Indeed, he’s retiring as Amazon CEO, but his haul keeps growing as the corporate stock price keeps bloating. Meanwhile, he bought himself a rocket ship company, and in July he intends to be Customer No. 1 on a tourist fling to the lower edge of space. He and five other high-flyers will take a short suborbital joy ride about 50 miles up in a fully pressurized cabin, then unbuckle and experience weightlessness for about three minutes before scooting back to terra firma. Imagine how impressed MLK Jr. would’ve been by Jeff’s commitment of his enormous wealth and potential to such a… well, such a flighty dream. For his part, the gabillionaire predicts that his space-capade will make him a new man: “It changes your relationship… with humanity,” he says of space travel. Good, for his relationship heretofore has been one of worker exploitation, tax cheating, and monopoly profiteering. So go forth, Bezos-man – and come back a better human.
