TheQuartering [7/14/2022]
New Yorkers are taking a bite out of tech billionaires by purchasing $10 popsicles shaped like the wealthiest men in the world.
Art collective MSCHF — the same group that faced backlash last year for making “Satan Shoes” with rapper Lil Nas X — began selling popsicles bearing names like “bite Bezos” for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, “munch Musk” for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, “suck Zuck” for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “snack on Jack” for Alibaba founder Jack Ma, and “gobble Gates” for Microsoft founder Bill Gates, according to Quartz. MSCHF is also offering its products across Los Angeles.
Despite promoting slogans like “Eat the Rich,” MSCHF appears to be making bank. The popsicles are twice as expensive as normal ice pops, according to Quartz.
Nevertheless, the anti-capitalist frozen confection enthusiasts seemed to enjoy getting a bite of the action. “They’re not great people,” a customer told Quartz, “but for me it’s an experience. I love this type of thing. I think this is really cute.”
“I could really take a bite out of all of them easily,” another customer remarked. “I don’t think anybody in the whole world should be a billionaire,” she continued, saying that Bezos is “taking over all business, and small businesses can’t survive anymore.”
Billionaire business magnates are often the subject of progressive ire. As the United States became awash with social justice activism during the summer of 2020, activists set up a guillotine in front of Jeff Bezos’ home in Washington, DC. One of the demonstrators said on a bullhorn that “it is still exploitation and when they become threatened, and we have no voice, the knives come out.”
Other protesters marched through Beverly Hills, California, chanting slogans like “eat the rich” and “abolish capitalism now.” In St. Louis, Missouri, protesters attempted to intimidate residents of a gated community, but were met by lawyers Mark and Patricia McCloskey guarding their property with their firearms.
Disdain for billionaires also exists among many Democratic lawmakers. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asserted on Twitter last year that the “rigged tax code” ought to be changed so that Musk will “stop freeloading off everyone else.”