Add The New York Post on Google Amazon founder Jeff Bezos torched Mayor Zohran Mamdani over the Big Apple’s sky-high school spending – touting that if his behemoth retail business ran like the city’s public school system, New Yorkers would be waiting weeks for their packages.
The billionaire on Wednesday ripped the democratic socialist mayor for dumping a record $43 billion into the mismanaged education system, fuming that New York City spends a whopping $44,000 per pupil – about 30% more than other major US cities – despite abysmal test scores and plummeting enrollment.
Bezos claimed that even doubling his billion-dollar taxes wouldn’t help a teacher in Queens – while Mamdani snapped back that he knows some educators who “would beg to differ.”
“If we ran Amazon the way New York City runs their school system – your packages would take six weeks to arrive,” the Amazon honcho told Andrew Ross Sorkin during a sit-down on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“We’d have to charge you a $100 delivery fee. And then when the package did finally arrive, it’d have the wrong item in it anyway.”
The fierce rebuke of Mamdani – often criticized as an inexperienced nepo baby who barely held down a job before taking office in January – comes after the Bezos family pledged $150 million to early childhood education in the Big Apple.
Bezos — who, by contrast, was raised by a teen mom and Cuban immigrant dad — argued the extra cash city officials are pouring into schools isn’t even going to teachers – but into a bloated bureaucracy.
“None of this money is getting to the teachers, I promise you,” he stressed.
“If you’re charging $44,000 per student, how much of that money do you think is trickling down to teachers? Not much.”
The tech titan – a “self-made” billionaire whom Forbes says has a $269 billion net worth – defended his own tax bill and criticized Mamdani’s signature tax-the-rich agenda, including a proposed levy on luxury second homes that has left wealthy business owners outraged.
The Blue Origin founder insisted that the 34-year-old failed rapper-turned-mayor could jack up the billions Bezos already forks over in taxes and it still wouldn’t help “that teacher in Queens.”
Hizzoner disagreed, firing back on social media Wednesday afternoon.
Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics
“I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ,” Mamdani snapped on X.
City Hall did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Bezos, the fourth richest person in the world, argued that hiking taxes on the rich and throwing money at an issue won’t fix it, insisting it takes skills he believes the mayor lacks.
“What’s happening here is politicians are using the kind of age-old techniques … you know, picking a villain and pointing fingers,” he said, calling the fiscal mess a “tale of two economies.”
“But the problem is that doesn’t solve anything. And so like, if you want to help the group of people who are struggling, you have to figure out real root causes and solutions. And that takes skill.”
At Amazon, Bezos said staffers use “the five whys” when problems erupt to get to a “root cause” and find a permanent fix.
“What we don’t do, because it doesn’t work, is just point fingers and blame people,” he added after Mamdani singled out billionaire Citadel CEO Ken Griffin.
“It might feel good for 10 seconds, but it doesn’t accomplish anything.”
Bezos’s sharp criticism of Mamdani and his bumbling school system comes after the Bezos Family Foundation pledged to donate up to $150 million to support early childhood education in New York – as the mayor pushes his ambitious universal free childcare agenda.
The Robin Hood charity last week launched a $1 billion endowment campaign to bolster its anti-poverty mission, anchored by a $100 million donation from the Bezos family to create the Jackie Bezos Endowment for Early Childhood.
The billionaire’s family also pledged an additional $25 million, subject to a match, for a total contribution of $150 million for the charitable fund named after Bezos’ late mother.
The gift positions Robin Hood, which has already invested $3 billion to fight poverty in the Big Apple, as a major player in the city’s escalating fight over affordable childcare.
Hizzoner is hoping to raise $20 million for a “childcare action fund” within the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City — and has only raised $3.5 million for this fund so far, the New York Times reported.
During his interview Wednesday, Bezos also called for changes to the US tax system, which he said sees the top 1% of taxpayers pay 40% of all tax revenue and the bottom half contribute 3%.
Start your day with all you need to know Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
He said it shouldn’t be 3%, but instead “zero.”
“When people are starting out and they’re struggling, stop taxing them. We don’t need it. We live in the wealthiest country in the world,” Bezos told CNBC.
He also talked about his own parents’ success stories in America, discussing how his adoptive father came to the US from Cuba in the 1960s and his mother was a teenager when she had him in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“I look at that and I think, I want to make sure that the people that are struggling today have a chance to do that too, to bring themselves up and maybe they’re gonna be the next Steve Jobs,” said Bezos, 62, who serves as executive chairman of Amazon, the country’s largest parcel carrier.
“Maybe one of their kids will be the next Steve Jobs, I don’t know. But we can give them a better chance by eliminating their tax bill. And I don’t want to reduce it, I want to eliminate it.”
