“It’s time to give socialism a try,” wrote Elizabeth Bruenig, a young opinion columnist, in The Washington Post in March. As you may have heard, The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, who, on the same day that Ms. Bruenig’s article appeared, was identified as the richest person in the world, with a fortune of $112 billion. Within days, Forbes, which makes it its business to know such things, had amended that figure on the basis of a surge in the Amazon stock price to $130 billion. There is no record of any reproof by “the world’s first centi-billionaire” of his employee for denigrating the economic system which had enabled him to amass such fabulous riches, but since The Washington Post under his ownership has...

 
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