“No hot water, no toilets, no lights.”

In late July, Jeff Bezos orbited the Earth for about 10 minutes — a $5.5 billion dollar trip to nowhere funded by Amazon employees and customers. Bezos flaunted his greed and demonstrated his indifference to conditions of poverty, hunger and the pandemic that continue to cause suffering here on Earth.

Tackling wealth hoarding requires us to organize and advocate for more equitable legislation and a just economic system. While we work on that, one thing we can do individually is to avoid contributing our hard-earned dollars to Amazon.

We do not blame people for purchasing from Amazon, especially when you cannot afford higher prices or need something delivered quickly. However, try to buy directly from independent vendors instead of Amazon when you have the choice. Buying direct benefits the businesses that create the products you need. When you buy from Hesperian, your purchase helps keep our books up to date with the latest health information. Our free HealthWiki, trusted by millions of people around the world, is made available in more than 80 languages through your book purchases. When you turn to us instead of Amazon, you also assist us in translating our award-winning library of health guides into new languages so we can better serve rural communities, refugees, immigrants, and other vulnerable people that Bezos couldn’t care less about.