Jeff Bezos: how the world's richest man can change his stingy reputation

The Amazon boss became the world's richest man on Thursday, but he's still looking for ways to do good with his money. He could start by improving the lives of his workers

On Thursday, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos finally became the world's richest man. But he still hasn't decided how to spend his money. Long known for being less charitable than other prominent members of the top .001%, Bezos recently hinted that he is finally looking for opportunities to put more of his money toward social good.

Bezos has long had a reputation for being unusually stingy, even for a multibillionaire. He is the only one of the world's top five billionaires not to have signed Warren Buffett's giving pledge, and his philanthropic efforts so far have paled next to those of other prominent corporate titans like Bill Gates and even Mark Zuckerberg. Instead, he has used his money to purchase the largest luxury home in Washington DC (converting the 27,000 sq ft Textile Museum into a single-family residence). Unlike his brother, Mark Bezos, a volunteer firefighter who runs an anti-poverty organization called Robin Hood, Jeff has confined himself to a few highly idiosyncratic forms of charity, such as handing out free bananas on the streets of Seattle.