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Jeff Bezos tweet seeking philanthropic ideas draws 42,000 replies

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Re: Jeff Bezos tweet seeking philanthropic ideas draws 42,000 replies

#21
post #2

I'm getting so sick of hearing the word 'disrupt'. It's been so overused that it I feel that it has basically lost all meaning. Edit: I see that the HN title has been changed in the meantime.

mainstream spoils everything. btw, what about Bezos paying taxes instead of "optimizing" ?

What evidence can you provide that the government provides a more efficient allocation of ressources? It is well-known that a lot of the taxes go into the military-industrial complex.

Re: Jeff Bezos tweet seeking philanthropic ideas draws 42,000 replies

#23
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 'You can't legislate societies problems away' Could you elaborate? It seems pretty obvious that you can. No child labour, minimum wage laws, equal rights etc.

The reason legislation like this isn't helping our country at the moment is because of globalization. Labor laws may help the workers, but it's a net negative if those laws just lead to the outsourcing of jobs. We need to choose between globalization for maximal gains for the rich, or protectionism for quality of life for our workers. At the moment, a middle ground doesn't seem possible.

Globalisation is fine where regulation can ensure that standards are still met. There is nothing that prevents domestic legislation setting standards for the working conditions of those who produce goods in foreign countries.

Protectionism isn't going to help workers in the long term. We live in a global market; accepting that and using legislation to deal with negative outcomes is a totally valid approach. The fact that it hasn't been done is because of the large amount of money standing in the way of it.

Re: Jeff Bezos tweet seeking philanthropic ideas draws 42,000 replies

#24
post #5

Great marketing campaign, but philantropic stuff needs to be long term to be of any use. Short term stuff can in fact be counter-productive by hiding that there is a problem that needs to be resolved. The best solution for almost every response he got is: Introduce better legislation. Even charities are just bandaids over actual problems.

> philantropic stuff needs to be long term to be of any use. Short term stuff can in fact be counter-productive by hiding that there is a problem

I 100% understand what you saving and agree long term fixes are preferable, but... 1) Short term can be massively helpful for getting over humps like famine/disaster etc. 2) I kinda feel that is such privileged world thinking. If I'm buying some guys with nothing food and clothes, sure its not a long term solution but now they have food and clothes for a week. Pretty great for those guys. Imagine you were without shoes and clothes and some rich bloke was like "we dont think we should give you that as it might not help you generate food/clothes in the long term". Kinda politicians that believe we need to keep welfare low to encourage people to pull themselves up by their boot straps.

Re: Jeff Bezos tweet seeking philanthropic ideas draws 42,000 replies

#25
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't legislate societies problems away. Legislation is just bandaids applied with the threat of violence for those who seek to remove them.

> 'You can't legislate societies problems away' Could you elaborate? It seems pretty obvious that you can. No child labour, minimum wage laws, equal rights etc.

Government doesn't have unlimited power to alter reality, there are countless examples of legislation being ineffective or having unintended consequences. The canonical example is prohibition of various drugs, but more recently the "ban the box" initiative is quite illustrative:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/consequ...

Re: Jeff Bezos tweet seeking philanthropic ideas draws 42,000 replies

#26
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mainstream spoils everything. btw, what about Bezos paying taxes instead of "optimizing" ?

What evidence can you provide that the government provides a more efficient allocation of ressources? It is well-known that a lot of the taxes go into the military-industrial complex.

None, it's beyond the question.

Re: Jeff Bezos tweet seeking philanthropic ideas draws 42,000 replies

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't legislate societies problems away. Legislation is just bandaids applied with the threat of violence for those who seek to remove them.

So invest in education ;)

There exist too many opinions about how education should be. If some philanthropist really does invest into how he/she believes education should be, there will be a large outcry, I bet.

Re: Jeff Bezos tweet seeking philanthropic ideas draws 42,000 replies

#28

Bring back the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) concept and significantly over-pay the employees on the condition half goes into savings accounts for family use or to pay down debts of some sort. Employ it as a method to give uneducated (HS degree) or underemployed (able bodied with Bachelors and $8/hr job), rehabilitate and early-release incarcerated US Citizens and put them to work in infrastructure needs. So, thi…

Totally agree!

This is why I always skeptically look at any philanthropic announcements....

if billionaires like Gates, Buffet, Zuck, Bezos simply funded the above - it would go way further, and have long asting effect on the future of this nation in so many profound ways. Rather than "give away half their wealth" - why not do the above now and actually see it change the surface of the nation?

---

I am getting involved in the tiny house movement. Clayton homes (berkshire hathaway) has a tiny home division... but BHs entities (like clayton and karsten) in the housing market are so poorly regarded: they build sub-standard homes, their employees are treated like crap, the quality of their products are low because they do not provide skilled training to their employees, the working conditions are fairly poor etc...

its maddening to see billionaires and governments claim all this "making the world a better place" platitudenal BS, but a critical program like CCC would be realize some serious material benefit in every sector.

Re: Jeff Bezos tweet seeking philanthropic ideas draws 42,000 replies

#29

How can one person read 42k anything. I hope he does, and not someone for him. I remember justice roberts saying in an interview how he read letters to president Reagan, and pass along those he thought appropriate. I was truly disappointed.

That is awfully naive but also very sweet.

You already posed the right question: How can one person read 42k anything? Answer: They can't. Delegation is not actually a horrible thing though.

Re: Jeff Bezos tweet seeking philanthropic ideas draws 42,000 replies

#30
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 'You can't legislate societies problems away' Could you elaborate? It seems pretty obvious that you can. No child labour, minimum wage laws, equal rights etc.

The reason legislation like this isn't helping our country at the moment is because of globalization. Labor laws may help the workers, but it's a net negative if those laws just lead to the outsourcing of jobs. We need to choose between globalization for maximal gains for the rich, or protectionism for quality of life for our workers. At the moment, a middle ground doesn't seem possible.

I'd be interested in seeing proof that protectionism actually does benefit workers; I suspect the effect is mixed. Cheap goods from overseas often can help improve poorer people's standards of living, and it's not hard to see how protecting industries from more efficient competition overseas can benefit business owners.
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