Jeff Bezos tweet seeking philanthropic ideas draws 42,000 replies • Hacker News Board

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

#41

Post by cies » Thu, Jun 22, 2017, 2:15 PM UTC

campbellmorgan wrote: post #33

Lobby Congress to outlaw lobbying and restrict campaign donations to $20 / person!

This. Next have a many-party political system so parties have to form coalitions. Or even better, only vote for and pay taxes to the lowest level of gov't (village, neighbourhood); then replace all higher levels of gov't with committees that are on topic (health care, roads, public transport, etc.) that are funded and mandated by those local gov't bodies. Note that committees do not have exclusive "right", local gov't bodies can switch or create their own if they feel the need.

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

#42

Post by wolfgke » Thu, Jun 22, 2017, 2:15 PM UTC

samstave wrote: post #31

Mithaldu wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which problem do you think cannot be solved with legislation that can be solved usefully by one-time application of money?

If legislation is the solution and money is a part of the problem, then why do lawyers charge so much freaking money?

> If legislation is the solution and money is a part of the problem, then why do lawyers charge so much freaking money?

Because there exists someone who is willing to pay that large amount of money for the service that the lawyer provides.

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

#43

Post by jlebrech » Thu, Jun 22, 2017, 2:15 PM UTC

samstave wrote: post #19

jlebrech wrote: post #12

why doesn't he create a big city with communal living and top rate security for refugees?

... Or for anyone?

or that too.

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

#44

Post by nostrebored » Thu, Jun 22, 2017, 2:15 PM UTC

Cozumel wrote: post #8

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #7

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.

All of these laws have pretty glaring problems though. Child labor combined with the emancipation system traps teenagers in abusive homes, minimum wage laws depend heavily on the elasticity of labor, equal rights laws seldom induce equality.

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

#45

Post by _yosefk » Thu, Jun 22, 2017, 2:23 PM UTC

josst wrote: post #40

samstave wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 involv…

I would guess many of them want to contribute to solving big global challenges rather than simply focusing on a single country?

I'd think one is more qualified to address local challenges than global ones. Certainly all those people made their money focusing on the US market, not only because it's big and governed by relatively uniform regulations but because they understand it better than any other. For the same reasons, it's IMO far easier to be effective as a philanthropist closer to home. (This is not to say there aren't exceptions to this, just that there's a certain tendency for it to be true. Of course there's the somewhat-Rawlsian argument that you should focus on those worst off first; without addressing this argument in itself, I think you should also focus on those whom you can make better off most effectively and who in turn will likely do the most philanthropic work once their own situation improves, and at least for a US billionaire, US citizens sound like a great target demographic on both counts.)

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

#46

Post by euroclydon » Thu, Jun 22, 2017, 2:26 PM UTC

samstave wrote: post #28

6stringmerc wrote: post #17

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 involv…

Simultaneously driving the economy and increasing quality of life are often competing goals. Take tiny homes, sure, you might be able to put more people in homes they own, but housing construction is one of the most hammer-ready jobs producing activities there is, and if you cut the average house size by 75%, there are fewer jobs in building.

Then consider externalities, the environment could be a lot cleaner if we got over striving for economic growth. Growth is driven by population or consumption growth or both. So you get more trees cut down to build roads, houses and malls. More pollution from energy consumption and manufacturing.

We should really just pursue managed population reduction, combined with a prescribed amount of economic shrinkage, not growth. But then people really get stuck in their caste and there are far fewer opportunities to move into middle class.

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

#47

Post by louithethrid » Thu, Jun 22, 2017, 2:31 PM UTC

What this species needs is not philantrophy, but a new frontier- something, that equalizes, as everyone gets a chance to throw themselves at it. A wild West, and to be honest the comp science revolution was a disappointment in that regard.

We need a method to get ressources for cheap out of the gravity well, so if he built a cannon to the moon, and researched a way to get humanity (0,1,0) there, that would be the greatest gift to this species.

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

#48

Post by r3bl » Thu, Jun 22, 2017, 2:31 PM UTC

losteverything wrote: post #20

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.

> How can one person read 42k anything.

It's actually quite easy in this case. Most of them are threads, from a quick skim on the replies. So you separate them into threads, treating the person that replied to the top comment (so, mentioning @JeffBezos and himself only) as one idea. Replies to these replies are not usually ideas, but more of questions, feedbacks and such. So, I would say that there are at most 10% of usable tweets (out of 42k replies in total), which you then combine into specific ideas (chain responding about an idea is still just one idea) and you get down to something like 500-1000. Out of those, you'll might find 50 or so that are actually doable and not blatant trolling (I mean, one of the top replies is literally "I could need some money and I would consider it very philanthropic") and you get something usable and easily digestible within a day or so.

I would say that he needs to read them, but he definitely needs someone to make it digestible before starting to read them.

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

#49

Post by maxerickson » Thu, Jun 22, 2017, 2:32 PM UTC

chris_t wrote: post #30

bobabooey02 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Part of the problem is that capital is more mobile than workers.

You can send your factory bucks overseas a lot easier than a poor person can move to a country with a higher standard of living.

We need to start asking the question of whether our legal systems should be friendly to capital at every opportunity.

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

#50

Post by zip1234 » Thu, Jun 22, 2017, 2:36 PM UTC

6stringmerc wrote: post #17

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…

The problem with "significantly over-pay" is that you end up with incentives for people to quit other low paying jobs and switch, which will force those employers to either significantly increase wages to match or more likely, automate the job. An another alternative is that there is a such a huge demand for jobs in new CCC that not everyone can be given one. How do you figure out who to give the jobs to? I would be very concerned about unintended consequences.