"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...
Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
391–400 of 560 posts
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks like this was cheaper than upping the salaries of warehouse workers to get them off food stamps and provide healthcare. For Bezos this is just another calculation, nothing more.
It is really frustrating when a man makes that much and does so little. Like, I don't think/know if it should be law. I'm not talking about being Robinhood with our taxes or whatever. I don't know any of that. All I know is it's frustrating . Look at all the good Gates is working towards. There's just so much room for people with that much wealth to strive for. Honestly.. I think what's most frustrating is I can't ev…
If I were Bezos, I'd do a lot more for charity.
That said, you're making the fallacy of thinking like money is a natural resource we dig up from the ground or something, that Bezos is hoarding.
No. Money is just an abstraction of barters and favors owed. Suppose Bezos pays a surgeon $100k to treat a patient. Well, the surgeon could have done it for free. So if Bezos didn't pay the surgeon, who is responsible for the lack of treatment? Bezos, or the surgeon? (An over-simplification, but the point doesn't change if you shift the money from one surgeon to a whole hospital etc.)
My vote: allow Bezos and others to operate within the law. If they're exploiting a loophole (like tax-free Amazon competing with taxed local shops), fix the law.
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#393Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe the people peacefully living in tents outside of town should instead start being more visible and getting in people’s faces, if that’s what it takes to be a priority.
We’re not talking about “getting in people faces”, we’re talking about a situation that is extremely unsafe, for everyone , homeless and non-homeless alike. If you’re suggesting more of that, there’s something seriously wrong with you.
Wow, slow down on the insults, cowboy. All I’m saying is if you’re considering group A a more urgent priority for providing help to than group B, then you’re incintivizing group B to be more like group A.
Officials need to address the whole problem, not just the visible problem.
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#394This isn’t popular, but I’d challenge anyone who thinks homelessness in Seattle isn’t primarily an addiction and mental illness problem to go spend a few afternoons in areas with significant homeless populations (3rd Ave in Pioneer Square is a great place, if you need a suggestion). It’s not that affordable housing isn’t a problem in Seattle. I know people who couldn’t live on their own in Seattle anymore due to rent…
That is actually a very popular opinion, and also very poorly informed. Your reasoning is entirely anecdotal and a trivial exercise in confirmation bias. Here's one article (among many) exploring why "Seattle's homeless population went up 44% in the last two years."[1] Spoiler: it's not because addiction and mental illness went up 44%. [1] https://q13fox.com/2017/12/06/seattles-homeless-population-w...
That link didn't say anything about why the homeless population went up, other than "rents went up".
It doesn't explain what stops people from looking for jobs in other, cheaper places, which is something I'm struggling to understand
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#395This isn’t popular, but I’d challenge anyone who thinks homelessness in Seattle isn’t primarily an addiction and mental illness problem to go spend a few afternoons in areas with significant homeless populations (3rd Ave in Pioneer Square is a great place, if you need a suggestion). It’s not that affordable housing isn’t a problem in Seattle. I know people who couldn’t live on their own in Seattle anymore due to rent…
Watch your causality. You know what helps mental illness and addiction? Stability. The kind of stability you get from knowing where you'll sleep each night, knowing that you'll be safe, not simply trying to survive each day. It is a complicated problem. There are no magic bullets, no panaceas, but it's ludicrous to think that housing per se isn't a major aspect of this issue. The threat of homelessness introduces anx…
Most of the addicted once had stability, but lost it because they would not give up their addiction(s).
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#396Strange to think that a model where people getting disproportionately rich, then give some of that richness away to poors, is going to work. The problem with US seems more that people lose the way because the state does not provide any fundamental help when you need it. So IMHO makes more sense to increase spending (and maybe taxes) in order to provide things like free health care, minimum pension, and so forth. This way the homeless can be, in part, prevented.
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#397This isn’t popular, but I’d challenge anyone who thinks homelessness in Seattle isn’t primarily an addiction and mental illness problem to go spend a few afternoons in areas with significant homeless populations (3rd Ave in Pioneer Square is a great place, if you need a suggestion). It’s not that affordable housing isn’t a problem in Seattle. I know people who couldn’t live on their own in Seattle anymore due to rent…
> but I’d challenge anyone who thinks homelessness in Seattle isn’t primarily an addiction and mental illness problem
It's not easy to detox from opioids if you don't have a home, or to get treatment for mental illness if you live on the streets.
We have a pretty good idea that housing first works, and is probably cheaper than other approaches.
https://www.homeless.org.uk/facts/our-research/housing-first...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/12/homele...
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#398Utilitarian question: Can he do more net good spending $2 billion to help the homeless, or spending an equivalent amount to double the take-home pay of warehouse employees and/or convert the "money towards medical insurance" plan into a company-supplied medical plan? (Follow-up question is "Given he doesn't have plurality control of the stock votes, does he have the authority to do so in a vacuum without getting ejec…
Amazon has (conservatively) over 500,000 employees. This $2B would cover a pre-tax salary increase of $4000 for one year, which wouldn't come close to doubling take-home pay.
I was thinking specifically of anyone making below $15/hr, not of the entire employee pool.
Amazon software engineers, I love you to pieces, but you're capable of negotiating your own salary or leaving the company to pursue other opportunities if you're feeling under-paid. ;)
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#399Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a matter of perspective. You can see a thing from afar and know what it is, but when you are in it, it is extremely hard to give it a name.
Surely a few people in the French aristocracy knew they were sitting on a time bomb. But nobody had the will, the skill, and the charisma to defuse the damned thing.
Mind you that the french aristocracy was dealing with a revolution which upheaveled the entire meaning of being a royal/noble, it's principles and the "entity" that they derived their "rights" from.
Prior to the french revolution, many royalty's (including the french) got their righteousness to rule from 'god'.
The french revolution was the first which actually abolished this ancient idea and tried to hold the nobles accountable to the state. (early revolutionaries even wanted to keep the bourbonnes, until the jacobins and Robespierre came around and ended that rather... certainly).
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#400I think it's good for Bezos to fight homelessness, but funding drug treatment programs from the sale of legal drugs would be a better long term solution. Treatment should be the first, if not the only, spending target of marijuana revenue.