Despite the pandemic, opportunities exist
Ah, to be Jeff Bezos. Amazon’s founder, the richest man to have ever walked the earth, is now personally worth more than such marquee names as Nike and McDonald’s.
How astonishing is it that one man can amass $180 billion in net wealth and significantly add to his fortune during a pandemic?
To view Bezos as just an extremely wealthy man obscures an important part of a dynamic economy. Over time, economic disruption, either by pandemic or innovation, punishes old business ways and rewards newer ones. And while no one wished for a devastating pandemic that has businesses and workers in the Main Street economy struggling to adapt and survive, this also could be the opportunity for the government, individuals and businesses to rethink their tactics.
Bezos’ success epitomizes the importance of entrepreneurism, the creative forces that develop the products and services that a radical new economic landscape demands. Meeting this challenge made Bezos wealthy, as it did Microsoft’s Bill Gates and countless pioneers who found answers before the rest of us knew to ask the question.
Those breakthroughs created jobs and prosperity, and while it is legitimate to ask tough questions about market power, privacy and other issues, the answer isn’t to hinder innovation with shortsighted legislation such as breaking up technology giants. Free-market principles that made these entrepreneurs rich and our nation successful must remain in our DNA.
Bezos’ genius, for example, was to facilitate convenience at a time when brick-andmortar stores dominated retailing. Bezos created an online logistics company that could deliver pretty much everything American consumers could think of buying, and a few things we didn’t think we needed until an algorithm suggested it.
His insight vastly changed the shopping habits of tens of millions of consumers. When the coronavirus pandemic kept us home, the convenience of shopping at home became a godsend.
When all of us finally step up and do what it takes to defeat the spread of the coronavirus, the world will not be the same as it was when 2020 started. The pandemic already has forced adjustments and also despair, as evidenced by record unemployment and jaw-dropping decimation of gross domestic product in the second quarter. Our response requires forward-thinking to create wealth, jobs and productivity. Our human capital must be aided, protected and encouraged. Aspiring to normalcy is a look backward, not forward.
The road to the future must not U-turn to the past. Competitive advantages no longer exist in many industries and business models face new market truths. The world is changing, and requires new ideas and ways of doing business.
If wealth is a scorecard, and we emerge from this pandemic intent on returning to old ways, then we will have missed a golden opportunity.
The Dallas Morning News