One of those evil billionaires...
One of Those Evil Billionaires Bernie Sanders Hates
Just Pledged Millions To Help Hospital Workers
Bridgewater Associated founder Ray Dalio and his wife, Barbara, pledged $4 million to help hospital workers pay for child care as well as feed needy families in their home state of Connecticut. (Roy Rochlin / Getty Images)
Choosing billionaires as his villains of choice is a terrible strategy for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, especially now that so many are giving away their fortunes to help those affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
While the Democratic presidential candidate rails against billionaires (it used to be millionaires until he became one) and thinks they shouldn’t even exist, stories about wealthy individuals who are contributing to the cause are popping up every day.
On Monday, the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Connecticut, reported another such example as Ray and Barbara Dalio and Dalio Philanthropies pledged $4 million to help hospital workers pay for child care as well as feed needy families in their home state.
The largest portion of the donation will be spent on providing child care for Connecticut health care workers. The $3 million will cover day care expenses for approximately 1,000 children for eight weeks while their parents are at work caring for the sick.
Barbara Dalio said she was moved by the news of hospital workers whose children were suddenly home alone following school closures. “To us, they are heroes. The least we can do is make sure their children are taken care of while they’re on the front lines providing medical care,” she told the Journal Inquirer.
The remaining $1 million will be distributed to Connecticut organizations that will provide enough food for around 35,000 needy residents for 10 weeks.
While Sanders impugns wealthy business leaders as though they somehow cheated the system for a windfall, Ray Dalio is a self-made businessman.
His company, Bridgewater Associates, started in his two-bedroom apartment in New York City shortly after he earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. From those humble beginnings, Dalio built his fortune, which Forbes now pegs at $18 billion.
Even as the Dalios and their philanthropic organization give millions away, Bridgewater Associates is not immune to the fallout from coronavirus. The company, which is the largest hedge fund firm in the world, was hit hard as its major funds took a tumble along with the markets, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Dalios aren’t the only wealthy philanthropists pitching in to help during the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Jack Ma, co-founder of technology giant Alibaba Group, generously donated masks, protective suits and coronavirus testing kits. The first round of donations took off for the United States on March 15.
Business Insider calls Ma the “richest man in China” and reports his net worth at over $38 billion, which is more than enough to raise the ire of the democratic socialist Sanders and his “Bernie Bros.”
Billionaire Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg also pitched in as he announced Sunday that his company will donate 720,000 respirator masks it had purchased to protect employees during wildfires.
In Italy, where the virus has ravaged the country with nearly 64,000 citizens infected and over 6,000 dead, 20 of the country’s billionaires — including fashion designer Giorgio Armani — have pledged over $44 million to fight coronavirus in their country, according to Forbes.
Billionaires continue to give more than their “fair share” to the effort, compelled not by the government but by their own altruism, giving lie to Sanders’ line of attack.
Bernie’s tired communist theories were already showing signs of wear long before the coronavirus reached American shores, but now Sanders himself has become an anachronism.
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