Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, argues that people who view extreme wealth as a moral failing have been taught to think about success the wrong way. The 62-year-old billionaire built the company from an online bookstore he started in his garage in 1994 into the No. 1 company on the Fortune 500. His own fortune has soared along the way, reaching $372 billion and making him the second-richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg's billionaires index. Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon's chief executive in 2021 and now leads the space company Blue Origin, has paired that defense of wealth creation with his own proposals on taxes and affordability.

"I think we live in an environment where some people have been taught, I think incorrectly, but taught … this whole kind of oppressor/oppressed framework, and [that] success is villainy," Bezos said in a recent interview with Fox News. "Success is not villainy. You can be a billionaire if you started a hamburger stand."

He illustrated the point by describing how an entrepreneur could open a simple food stand with about 10 workers, grow it into a business with thousands of locations and employees, and ultimately become a billionaire.

"This is how it works," he said. "There's nothing wrong with making unbelievably good chicken that people love. And it doesn't make him a bad person."

As Americans question billionaire wealth, Bezos argues for tackling affordability

Bezos's remarks come at a time when many Americans—particularly younger generations—remain skeptical of concentrated wealth. Some 18% of Americans view being extremely rich as "morally wrong," a figure that nearly doubles to about 33% among Gen Z adults ages 18 to 29, according to the nonpartisan 2025 Pew Research study. The gap between those two figures captures the generational divide that runs through the broader American debate over wealth and inequality.

That skepticism has grown alongside billionaire fortunes. In 2025, the combined wealth of the world's billionaires reached a record $18.3 trillion, according to Oxfam, the anti-poverty organization. Meanwhile, the American Dream of buying a home has increasingly felt out of reach for many households, particularly younger Americans struggling with housing costs.

Bezos, for his part, acknowledged that the country faces real affordability problems. But he argued that voters should be wary of politicians who focus on assigning blame rather than addressing the underlying issues.

"You can't pretend there's no problems," he said. "Young people look at the cost of housing and think, 'I have to live two hours out of town. I can't live close to my job.'"

It is the same problem-solving approach he expects from executives at his own companies.

"If there's somebody at Amazon or Blue Origin or Prometheus, an executive at one of my companies, instead of working on a root cause and a real fix, all they did is point fingers and blame people, we would exit them quickly," Bezos said. "They wouldn't be here long."

Bezos has proposed eliminating federal income taxes for lower earners

Earlier this year, Bezos floated a proposal to ease the tax burden on lower-income Americans, suggesting that the bottom half of U.S. income earners—roughly 76 million households—should pay no federal income taxes.

"The bottom half of income earners in this country pay only 3% of the taxes," Bezos told CNBC in May. "I think it should be zero." Any such change would require an act of Congress.

To make his case, he pointed to a hypothetical health care worker in Queens who makes $75,000 a year but pays more than $1,000 a month in taxes.

"To me, it's kind of absurd that we're doing this," Bezos said. "We shouldn't be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington. They should be sending her an apology. It really makes no sense."

From Howard Schultz to Jamie Dimon, billionaire CEOs agree success shouldn't be vilified

Bezos is not alone in pushing back against the idea that success—and the billions of dollars that can come with it—should be viewed as inherently bad.

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who has about $3.4 billion to his name, has likewise argued that his fortune reflects years of hard work rather than an unfair advantage.

"This moniker 'billionaire,' let's get at that okay?" Schultz said during a heated U.S. Senate committee hearing in 2023. "I grew up in federally subsidized housing; my parents never owned a home; I came from nothing. I thought my entire life was based on the achievement of the American Dream. Yes, I have billions of dollars. I earned it. No one gave it to me."

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who leads the largest U.S. bank by assets and has a net worth of about $3 billion, has similarly acknowledged concerns about wealth inequality while rejecting the notion that wealthy people should be vilified simply for their success.

"I think you should vilify Nazis, but you shouldn't vilify people who've worked hard to accomplish things," Dimon told 60 Minutes in 2019.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.