Don’t be surprised if Bernie Sanders shows up at his next rally with a bag of rice.
After all, this video from Humphrey Yang racked up millions of views across Twitter TWTR, +0.58% and TikTok over the weekend by using grains of rice to capture the wealth divide that Sanders has been raging against for years.
Specifically, with a single grain representing $100,000, Yang had to use a staggering 58 pounds of rice to capture the vast wealth of Amazon AMZN, -0.03% founder Jeff Bezos, estimated to be $122 billion at the time of filming.
In one of the more compelling visuals, Yang showed what’s left of Bezos’s rice pile after the purchase of his new $165-million home:
Somewhere, Sanders is shaking his head and wagging his finger.
During the Democratic debate in Las Vegas last month, Sanders said we have to confront the “grotesque and immoral” wealth divide in this country, and he directly called out one of his deep-pocketed rivals for the nomination.
“Bloomberg owns more wealth than the bottom 125 million Americans,” he said. “That’s wrong. That’s immoral. That should not be the case when we got half a million people sleeping out on the street. When we have kids who cannot afford to go to college. When we have 45 million people dealing with student debt.”
As for the video, Yang’s efforts clearly weren’t lost on another Democratic presidential hopeful who’s also looking to raise taxes on the wealthy:
While Yang avoided taking a political stance in his clip, the comments section waded deep into one of the most contentious issues facing candidates:
“I love how the single rice grain that represents $100,000 would change my entire life.”
“That’s why having billionaires is WRONG. One grain of rice is sufficient for a complete family to live 1-2 years from it. One grain! Look how many families have to stay poor because of one man.”
“It’s almost like Jeff Bezos created a company that services the whole world. Weird that value creation is something that is attacked.”
“In terms of wealth some people have on others, I don’t know if I’d blame the person. If you create Amazon, you’re going to have a ton of wealth. I’d direct the reason toward the system itself — capitalism itself.”
Meanwhile, the Sanders campaign keeps rolling along. His fundraising efforts delivered $46.5 million in February to lead the field.
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