Jeff Bezos argued that becoming a billionaire can result from building a product or service that millions of people voluntarily choose to buy, rejecting claims that extreme wealth necessarily requires exploitation. During a May CNBC interview, the Amazon ($AMZN) founder used the example of a small burger restaurant that expands to hundreds or thousands of locations because customers like the food. “If millions of people choose your service, you’re going to end up with $1 billion,” Bezos said, pointing to businesses such as In-N-Out Burger and Raising Cane’s as examples of growth driven by consumer demand. His message was simple: scale follows value creation, but “your chicken has to be good.” Bezos also pushed back on arguments that workers should automatically receive a much larger share of company profits. He highlighted Amazon’s entry-level wages and benefits, citing roughly $23 per hour for some workers in Queens, New York, along with health coverage. He questioned why workers earning around $52,000 annually should face more than $10,000 in taxes, calling that burden “absurd.” Bezos said he would consider paying more taxes himself if there were a convincing argument that doing so would materially improve outcomes for ordinary workers. He also advocated eliminating federal income taxes for the bottom half of earners. That position contrasts with proposals from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna, who support a 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires. Sanders argues the revenue could fund programs including child care, Medicare expansion and higher teacher pay. Bezos’s broader case is that wealth creation should be judged by whether businesses create products people value, while debates over inequality should focus separately on taxes, wages and public policy.