[U].S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has a $158 billion question for the wealthiest person in the world.
“Jeff Bezos and his company, Amazon, make huge profits by paying their employees wages that are so inadequate that many of them need public assistance just to get by,” the senator says. “How absurd is that?”
But try to ask Sanders why he’s set to sell his upcoming book, “Where We Go from Here,” on Amazon and you won’t get an answer.
“This is a book question — you’re going to have to ask the publisher,” Sanders’ spokesman Joshua Miller-Lewis says. “I can’t handle any book-related stuff.”
Publicists at Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of the publishing powerhouse Macmillan, didn’t respond to repeated inquiries about the title, now available for pre-order from the world’s largest online retailer.
Sanders and Amazon are sparking national headlines as the senator questions why the federal government is spending $150 billion annually for assistance programs for low-wage workers.
“Today in America, thousands of Amazon workers are forced to rely on food stamps, Medicaid and public housing because they can’t survive on the wages they receive,” the senator wrote in a recent letter to supporters. “That is what the rigged economy is all about. And in my view, that has got to end.”
To address his concern, Sanders has introduced the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act — or Stop BEZOS Act for short. The bill calls for a corporate welfare tax on large employers equal to the amount of federal benefits received by their workers. If someone at a company with more than 500 staffers receives $100 in food stamps, for example, the employer would be taxed $100.
“The Stop Bezos Act gives large employers a choice: pay workers a living wage or pay for the public assistance programs low-wage workers are forced to rely upon,” Sanders’ office says in a statement.
Amazon, in a rare public response, notes it is “proud to have created over 130,000 new jobs last year alone. In the U.S., the average hourly wage for a full-time associate in our fulfillment centers, including cash, stock, and incentive bonuses, is over $15/hour before overtime.”
The company also can report that when Sanders released his last book, “Our Revolution,” after his unsuccessful bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, it helped him reap a handsome profit.
“Political books tend to follow a well-worn formula: cliche title, inspiring portrait on the cover, and a series of platitudes throughout the pages laying the foundation for an inevitable White House run,” BuzzFeed News recently opined of the genre. “They are often tough to sell.”
But “Our Revolution” sold a surprisingly strong 200,000 copies in the weeks after Donald Trump was elected president, earning the author a $795,000 advance and $306,000 in royalties, U.S. Senate financial disclosure forms reveal.
Amazon sold about half of those books, according to industry estimates, most notably when the 464-page hardcover topped the retailer’s best-sellers list on its publication date.
Sanders’ follow-up “Where We Go from Here,” set for release Nov. 27, has earned its author a $505,000 advance, U.S. Senate financial disclosure forms show. The 320-page hardcover promises to fuel more sales — as well as speculation about a 2020 repeat White House run.
“Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign was a beginning, not an end,” Thomas Dunne Books is telling retailers about the coming title. “In his new book, America’s most popular political figure speaks about what he’s been doing to oppose the Trump agenda and strengthen the progressive movement and how we go forward as a nation.”
Sanders’ book is priced at $27.99, the same figure as his average campaign contribution. Amazon currently is discounting that to $18.29 — a number most local independent bookstores can’t afford to match.
“Small business owners like us are competing against — and in many ways are controlled by — companies like Amazon that escape paying taxes and that choose to offer low wages to their employees, despite the company’s soaring profits,” Mike DeSanto, co-owner of Phoenix Books stores in Burlington, Chester, Essex, Rutland and Woodstock, has written in a commentary.
“As a small retailer competing with Amazon,” DeSanto continues, “big box stores and the shift to online shopping in general, it can be difficult to bring in enough revenue to stay in business and to provide my employees with high wages and robust compensation packages.”
Sanders’ staffers view any inquiry about the senator’s Amazon sales a “gotcha question,” although they won’t explain why on the record. DeSanto, for his part, understands the challenges for everyone involved.
“Bernie doesn’t control the distribution of his book — when you’re an author, you sign a contract with the publisher,” the Vermont retailer says. “If you want to get your book out there, you’re forced to sell to Amazon. But it does leave you open to certain questions if you’re castigating the company.”
As for the answer?
“That you’d have to take up with the Sanders people,” DeSanto says.
But DeSanto notes his stores, like most other local independents in the state, have their own websites — ones he suggests the senator could link to.
“If I was Bernie, I’d say, ‘I just want you to buy the book — and buy it at local bookstores.’”
