Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#121

Post by yeukhon » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 5:01 PM UTC

jakelazaroff wrote: post #108

dsabanin wrote: post #86

What's up with the critical comments in here? How many of the judgemental and jaded posters here donated anything close to this to a charitable cause? Good deeds must be applauded, not shamed for not being better. Especially if the definition of "better" is made up randomly on the spot.

No one's shaming him for not doing something better. They're shaming him for having a direct role in creating the problem this charity is supposed to resolve.

Isn’t this “problem created by” anyone who is rich then?

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#122

Post by anthanm » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 5:02 PM UTC

pinewurst wrote: post #42

etaty wrote: post #26

All hail to Bezos... Earlier this year, under pressure from Amazon and other large employers, Seattle’s City Council repealed an employee head tax designed to provide housing and services for the homeless. In a statement, Amazon called the vote “the right decision for the region’s economic prosperity. We are deeply committed to being part of the solution to end homelessness in Seattle and will continue to invest in l…

Speaking as a Seattle resident, and despite my dislike for Bezos, this was a stupid tax - more connected to Seattle's dysfunctional politics than solving our bad homeless problem. Among other things, it was keyed to revenues not profits (specifically to target Amazon) but it ended up burning the likes of grocers who provide decent jobs but don't have a lot of margin even with large revenues. Good riddance to it and a…

And will you say good riddance when he's extracting billions in tax breaks from the state in a few years?

It was about 2% of a minimum wage salary per employee. I need more evidence that's unaffordable to a business that does 20+M in revenue.

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#123

Post by gammateam » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 5:02 PM UTC

dbatten wrote: post #76

DoreenMichele wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You aren't anywhere near cynical enough. Taken far enough, programs to "help the homeless" -- instead of programs to reduce homelessness -- are a de facto plot to keep homelessness alive and well. It's a form of oppression of the masses. https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-shirky-...

Given that Bezos envisions, for example, creating a network of preschools in low-income areas, I'd say he's at least thinking about helping people get out of cyclical poverty. Still, I'd also like to see Amazon pay its employees better...

so the one person that reads the article gets down-voted to oblivion, thanks for taking the fall mate! Your altruism will not go unnoticed

I was going to comment about the preschools and how that idea came from ideas solicited by the public because everyone was just assuming it was just arbitrary helicopter money exclusively for PR

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#124

Post by NeonVice » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 5:02 PM UTC

jakelazaroff wrote: post #108

dsabanin wrote: post #86

What's up with the critical comments in here? How many of the judgemental and jaded posters here donated anything close to this to a charitable cause? Good deeds must be applauded, not shamed for not being better. Especially if the definition of "better" is made up randomly on the spot.

No one's shaming him for not doing something better. They're shaming him for having a direct role in creating the problem this charity is supposed to resolve.

How is Amazon creating more homeless people?

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#125

Post by threatofrain » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 5:02 PM UTC

kevmo wrote: post #55

"Philanthropy" is just another way that oligarchs take tax-free control of our society and shape it to their whims. A fine example of this is Bill Gates - with no educational training or experience, he used his fortune to push failing methods on millions on American kids.[1] Bezos is a great creator of poverty. He is the wrong person to try and fix it. We need to just make these oligarchs pay taxes and living wages,…

Look at that person's criticism of the Common Core and tell me you like to read such essayists, including that sparsity of facts...

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#126

Post by icc97 » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

kevmo wrote: post #55

"Philanthropy" is just another way that oligarchs take tax-free control of our society and shape it to their whims. A fine example of this is Bill Gates - with no educational training or experience, he used his fortune to push failing methods on millions on American kids.[1] Bezos is a great creator of poverty. He is the wrong person to try and fix it. We need to just make these oligarchs pay taxes and living wages,…

I just finished reading the book "human universals" which mentions that we're neither in a full democracy nor a full autocracy, so we're in a de facto oligarchy.

So where as I've often sneered at Russia for it's oligarchs we clearly have the same issue. Perhaps the Western oligarchs have earned their money more transparently, but they're still oligarchs.

Also one of the human universals is that we admire generosity in leaders, so these grandiose gifts are what oligarchs love.

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#127

Post by pinewurst » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

dsabanin wrote: post #86

What's up with the critical comments in here? How many of the judgemental and jaded posters here donated anything close to this to a charitable cause? Good deeds must be applauded, not shamed for not being better. Especially if the definition of "better" is made up randomly on the spot.

I don't think there's any proof yet that Bezos' promised contribution is any more real than the ludicrous Zuckerberg foundation.

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#128

Post by rhexs » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

mothsonasloth wrote: post #39

Curious to know if there is an Amazon killer company(ies) that will emerge in the future?

Sure, after anti-trust, which isn't a thing in the United States anymore.

All hail the ever increasing stock and housing market, the savior of the boomers, the one true political goal.

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#129

Post by ithilglin909 » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

burlesona wrote: post #15

I hope this works and is successful. Still I can’t help but be reminded of the saying that roughly goes “the people who are paid to solve a problem end up having a vested interest in the problem not being solved.” Specifically with regards to homelessness, the problem seems to be the critical shortage of housing for people in general, leading to a total crisis of affordable housing, rather than a specific problem of…

This is just a PR move and isn’t going to help Seattle’s homeless problem at all.

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#130

Post by CodeSheikh » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 5:04 PM UTC

I dont't care if this is a PR stint to ward of recent criticism Bezos is getting from Bernie et al but if this fund goes and actually help and make a real life impact on the lives of homeless people, then I am fine and I will hold back my criticism of Amazon. I mean clearly I have not done enough to mitigate homelessness in this country who am I to question others motives trying to solve the same problem?