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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos tied the knot with Lauren Sanchez in a very over-the-top wedding in Venice yesterday. It had all the makings of a dream wedding — beautiful designer clothes, flashy celebrity guests, set in dreamy Venice and a Vogue cover — but to most people, it was a masterclass in a tasteless display of opulence and wealth hoarded by the mistreatment of others.

Bezos’ Amazon, as we all know, has been marred with highly credible accusations of poor safety conditions and a terrible working environment, including being so demanding about meeting targets that workers urinated in bottles to avoid taking bathroom breaks while on shift. The company also won’t allow its workers to unionise — which would allow them to bargain for better wages and safety conditions.

After knowing all that, it’s difficult for most people to rationalise celebrating a lavish wedding, no matter how glamorous it may be. The wedding is rumoured to have cost over $20 million.

Several people mocked the wedding and all its pre-events as being “ghetto” or tacky and it’s not difficult to see why.

Many eyes zoomed in on the guest list, which included the Kardashians, Ivanka Trump, model Karlie Kloss (who is Ivanka’s sister-in-law), Leonardo DiCaprio (who positions himself as a climate activist), Sydney Sweeney, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and many other celebrities.

They were flown in on over 90 private jets, so any claims they have made about supporting climate conscious activities or ventures don’t really hold much weight.

DiCaprio’s attendance — in a black baseball hat no less! — was something a lot of people highlighted, especially given his climate activism work. It’s kind of difficult to listen to someone preach about sustainability and saving the planet when they’re being flown across the world in a private jet and hanging out with someone with a carbon footprint the size of a small country.

Many had some valid questions — why should the burden of saving the planet be on common people when a billionaire is creating more of a negative impact over the course of a weekend than most people will in their entire lives? We wonder how many recycled yoghurt cups it would take to make up for the emissions from all those private jets…

Venice has been protesting Bezos’ wedding with a passion, citing the effects of over-tourism in the city as well as how little the billionaire pays in taxes — from huge banners to floating effigies of Bezos, the residents of the city made it clear with their “No Space For Bezos” campaign that he was not welcome.

And then, of course, came the primary reason everyone is angry — Bezos’ tax rate is less than most people’s at just 1.1 per cent. That means he is able to hoard so much wealth — and, in turn, host such an extravagant — because of the tax cuts he has been given by governments.

It’s also laughable that this wedding comes at a time when New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has been criticised as a threat to US democracy over his socialist views and proposed policies that aim to tax the rich and help the average person.

There were, of course, arguments made online that it’s their money, and they should be allowed to spend it as they please. That argument only holds up when said money hasn’t been made through the exploitation of others.

The overwhelming sentiment online — tax the rich and stop allowing billionaires to behave as if the planet isn’t dying.