Jeff Bezos says people have been ‘incorrectly’ taught that success is a villain: ‘You can be a billionaire if you started a hamburger stand,’ he slams

Jeff Bezos has taken Amazon from an online bookstore he founded in his garage in 1995—to the No.

1 company on the Fortune 500 .

His own net worth has soared, too, with a net worth of $372 billion making him the second-richest person in the world.

However, the 62-year-old argues that people who view extreme wealth like his own as a bad thing have been taught to think about success the wrong way.

“I think we live in an environment where some people have been taught, I think incorrectly, but taught, that this whole kind of oppressor/oppressed framework, and success is villainy,” Bezos recently told Fox News .

“Success is not villainy.

You can be a billionaire if you started a hamburger stand.” Bezos pointed to how someone could start with a simple food stand with 10 or so workers, grow it into a business with thousands of locations and employees, and eventually become a billionaire.

“This is how it works,” he said.

“There’s nothing wrong with making unbelievably good chicken that people love.

And it doesn’t make him a bad person.” As Americans question billionaire wealth, Jeff Bezos argues for tackling affordability Many people, particularly younger generations, may disagree with Bezos’s assessment.

Some 18% of Americans view being extremely rich as “morally wrong,” a figure that nearly doubles to about 33% among Gen Z adults aged 18 and 29, according to a 2025 Pew Research study .

That skepticism comes as billionaire wealth continues to soar.

In 2025, the fortunes of the world’s billionaires reached a record $18.3 trillion, according to Oxfam .

Meanwhile, the American Dream of buying a home has increasingly felt out of reach for many households, particularly younger Americans struggling with housing costs.