Welcome to Axis ProRata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

I'm Dan Permac. On today's show, Staples Stifths its landlords and Passover via Zoom.

But first, the battle over billionaire saviors. So yesterday's big tech headline was the Jack Dorsey, who runs both Twitter and

Square, has decided to donate $1 billion of his square equity toward a new organization that

will initially fund coronavirus relief and later focus on girls' health and education plus

universal basic income. This comes on top of Apple donating tens of millions of surgical masks

to frontline workers,

Bill Gates pledging big money to build vaccine production factories, and other large donations

from tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Dell.

Now, obviously, all of this is welcome and needed.

We are in the midst of an all-hands-on-deck emergency, and every piece of help is worth giving

and receiving. But it also reflects

the reality that America has become increasingly reliant on its billionaires to fix the problems

that governments are supposed to fix. And in so doing, it possibly becomes an unvirtuous cycle

in which billionaire power and influence only grows, thus making them even more essential the next time around.

That's the argument of recode reporter Teddy Schaeffler, who writes, quote,

tech billionaires can be doing good while simultaneously revealing their power and entrenching it for the long haul, end quote.

We'll talk to Teddy in 15 seconds.

But first, this.

There is more news out there than ever before, but these days, it's harder than ever to find it and to know what to trust.

Axios AM takes the effort out of getting smart by synthesizing the 10 stories that will drive the day and telling you why they matter.

Subscribe at signup.axios.com.

...