I’m not a fan of Bezos. Don’t like what Amazon did to publishing and book retailing. Don’t like the slimey way they have conducted business in the past; the strong arm tactics; the arrogance of monopoly; the way they keep being caught trying to sneak author-screwing tactics and tricks on the world. Yup, I said it.

At the same time, I don’t begrudge the man his money. He made his dough – and I am not entitled to some of it because I feel I am. Nor is anyone else.

I remember growing up poor. My daddy’s house was fairly respectably middle class – but for a while there I didn’t live with him – and braved the more desperate and low-class holes of Apartheid South Africa’s mining towns. Places like Boetrand. I remember being aware of scarcity. I remember often feeling tension in the air as the lack of resources was all pervasive. The dreams of space, though, as a little kid, provided me with some time away from all the pointless pains of real existence. Who knew the poor had dreams, and hopes, and lives, and aspirations, and ambitions?

Well – to be frank – not the very many whiners I’ve seen on social media lately. The narrative is always boringly predictable too: In a world with so much poverty/ hunger – how dare rich men waste the money blasting off into space? Huh? HUH? Hashtag capitalism sucks.

Well who knew the poor had so many friends.

I mean, true, we are today living in an age where there are fewer people living below the poverty line than ANY OTHER TIME IN HISTORY… but yes, there are still lots of poor people. And all it took for them to be fussed about was Bezos on a dick shaped spaceship. I mean, we also have the Olympics and that money could be used for the poor too. And the Euro soccer thing. The rock concerts saving stages for actors and artists. All these useless parasites taking money away from the monolithic, infantilized group known as ‘The Poor’.

Come to think of it, why don’t we cancel everything that exists other than ensuring people get enough calories. Including your internet subscription. You really can’t justify having that when there are barefoot, snot-nosed, pathetic little children running around starving. How dare you?

You see – the poor is always everybody’s favourite manipulative tool.

Everyone picks up their cause to make a point, grab attention, or secure legitimacy. Strangely, the people living in Boetrand had no guarantee of a meal before Bezos went to space, and neither did they after. What one billionaire does with his money – it turns out – doesn’t really affect the scheme of things all that much. (Want the math? Stats from the social justice exemplars of Oxfam, Hallowed Be Thy Names. The Top 86 people in the world’s asset base is equal to the 3.5 billion poorest people. Confiscate all the money and redistribute it equally, and each of the poor people get $500. But they’ll only have it once. Forever. So stop talking about redistribution if you can’t even understand scale.)

You see, it’s not about the poor. Not really. For some it’s virtue signalling, and for others, it’s plain, old fashioned envy.

How rich is too rich? Why, anyone richer than me is too rich. I’ve deserved every cent I myself have… but everyone with more than me stole it somehow.

Well, yeah.

The idea that different private efforts are now being made to get mankind to space is imperative for the survival of our species. It is an advance that will lead humanity to technological advances and social upliftment the likes of which we have never seen before. We are on the cusp of a major leap – the economy of low earth orbit will equal the blasts of advancement experienced by mankind with the industrial and then information revolutions.

So please stop crapping on that because you have some sort of inferiority complex or misguided political kink – and please – stop cynically using poor people to excuse those traits in yourself. Or blaming them for your own shortcomings. Like when you say ‘poverty causes crime’ – an insult to every law abiding, decent poor person in the world (of whom, incidentally, there are a great many).

Speak in your own name. Don’t take the dreams of barefoot, snot nosed little boys dreaming of space because you have a hard on for slamming commie calories down their throats. Sometimes only their dreams keep them going.

Also, when the tech and the benefits arrive – you personally will be under no obligation to use any of it. In fact, you should publicly opt out now, since you’re so moral.