Jeff Bezos’s Beautiful Defense of American Entrepreneurialism

I dare you to read—without shedding a tear of joy—Jeff Bezos’s July 29 statement before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on antitrust. Even given a few paeans to “climate change,” “income inequality,” “much-needed race reckoning,” and an apparent confusion about the nature of democracy, his statement is one of the most beautiful defenses of the entrepreneurial American spirit that I’ve ever heard from a CEO. He tells the story of his hardworking parents, his youthful exploits as “a garage inventor,” his decision to leave a steady job and take on massive risk to start an online book retailer, Amazon’s many trying years, and what it’s doing today to fulfill “its long-term mission of making it Earth’s most customer-centric company.” . . .

About Jon Hersey

Jon Hersey is the associate editor of The Objective Standard. His work focuses on intellectual history, specifically, the ideas on which freedom and flourishing depend. He has published in-depth articles on John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Stark, William Wilberforce, Rosa Parks, and more.

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