Couldn't he just buy out the major coal energy companies and force them to become 100% wind+solar+etc within x years.
Presumably the minor coal energy companies would quickly become new major companies in the vaccuum left behind.
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Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
131–140 of 237 posts
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#132Do we know how much emissions can be attributed to Amazon / AWS? I'm curious if this $10 billion fund could offset that or if it's too small to cover their own use. Though, to be fair to Amazon, this is at least a good goal: > Amazon expects 80% of its energy use to come from renewable energy sources by 2024, up from a current rate of 40%, before transition to zero emissions by 2030.
It's kind of irrelevant how much harm a single company does, since that company exists to serve a demand that would simply be filled by other companies if it didn't exist. Maybe those theoretical other companies would have marginally better business practices vis-a-vis the environment, but it's not like they would operate in a wholly alternative economic system.
simplifying down complex issues to fit "the curves" narrative often misses a lot of really important nuance.
to wit, let's imagine there's an incumbent company that serves out the demand in an incredibly efficient but environmentally harmful manner. further suppose this is a large national player that's willing to eat some losses in order to crowd out the whole "efficient allocation of resources" type new businesses that may spring up and serve that demand in an environmentally friendly manner.
according to "the curves", there's no room to displace that incumbent because they're stuck in a local maximum when it comes exclusively to satisfying demand. but it's pretty clear that there are externalities that, when considered, make it an attractive target for change by different players.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#133After reading Winners Take All my level of cynicism is through the roof with headlines like this. $10b of his own personal fortune? That won't results in tax breaks / deduction because can be considered a donation? Or does that include money Amazon-the-company is spending on "climate change" efforts, such as buying electric delivery trucks instead of gas ones? Investments in "green datacenters"? Is any of this new in…
I frequently see the "they're just doing this for the tax breaks" sentiment for these kinds of donations (especially when the donor is a corporation or hyper-wealthy individual) but I don't understand the reasoning. From what I understand of tax deductions, a donation of $X basically means that the donor can skip paying taxes on $X of income. This results in a savings of tax% * $X, which is always The tax deduction a…
I think ultimately this cynicism is born out of envy/jealousy for the good will that such a donation engenders.
As you've pointed out, any logical analysis would conclude that, even in the most extreme cases, there's still a sizable positive benefit to society.
People have a problem with "undeserved" good will as if good will is some scarce resource that's limited in supply. I think the reality is they're envious.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#134Billionaire invests $10B dollars to virtue signal and control the behavior of the poor, while not changing his lifestyle at all. 165M dollar environmentally excessive mansion, private jets, and a rocket program that dumps carbon into the air. I’ll be impressed when billionaires actually make sacrifices themselves, rather than just write checks. Checks are important, but let’s be real about these people.
I think these kinds of opinions are really dangerous–we cannot just expect society to go back to the stone age. It's why the average human is blocking climate change out, the changes have to come in the form of e.g. CO2 taxes and broad regulation. Climate is not the responsibility of the individual citizen. It's bad enough as it is, we don't need to feel guilty every day about small things like using a plastic straw…
One thing we need to stop completely is emissions trading and carbon offsetting. Carbon emissions have to be decreased drastically by most large corporations and offsetting and trading does not reduce emissions & allows corporations and governments to greenwash constantly. Here in New Zealand the governments is praised as being pro environment when it is all just greenwashing. They are portrayed as left leaning when they are neo-liberal aka climate change denying capatilists. They don't understand economic prosperity and environmental sustainability are mutually exclusive.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#135After reading Winners Take All my level of cynicism is through the roof with headlines like this. $10b of his own personal fortune? That won't results in tax breaks / deduction because can be considered a donation? Or does that include money Amazon-the-company is spending on "climate change" efforts, such as buying electric delivery trucks instead of gas ones? Investments in "green datacenters"? Is any of this new in…
We're pretty light on details. I take it as he will probably gift $10 billion dollars worth of stock from his personal portfolio to a 501(c), which they will use as an endowment. I think this would bypass capital gains altogether? But 'pledge' could mean any number of things, like selling stock slowly over time.
For sure light on details but it seems like he (or a family office) will be grant making and it is coming from him not his foundation or Amazon.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/17/jeff-bezos-announced-a-10-...
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#136Related: “Against Against Billionaire Philanthropy” ( https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/07/29/against-against-billio... )
Based on that article, Bezos just pledged more money to fight climate change than the U.S. government has spent on it in the past 25 years.
It's a lot closer to the amount the US has spent subsidizing coal over the last 10 years.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
I frequently see the "they're just doing this for the tax breaks" sentiment for these kinds of donations (especially when the donor is a corporation or hyper-wealthy individual) but I don't understand the reasoning. From what I understand of tax deductions, a donation of $X basically means that the donor can skip paying taxes on $X of income. This results in a savings of tax% * $X, which is always The tax deduction a…
Yeah the donation deduction is just a form of leverage. You effectively pay X but the charity gets 2X (actual multiplier depends on your marginal tax rate). One way of looking at it is that the government is "matching" part of your donation with tax money. But you never make money that way.
You can't make money this way but you can still argue that money that would have gone to taxes has now been redirected by an individual to a cause they solely decided is worthwhile.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I frequently see the "they're just doing this for the tax breaks" sentiment for these kinds of donations (especially when the donor is a corporation or hyper-wealthy individual) but I don't understand the reasoning. From what I understand of tax deductions, a donation of $X basically means that the donor can skip paying taxes on $X of income. This results in a savings of tax% * $X, which is always The tax deduction a…
The argument seems to be that the donor is not making any actual financial sacrifice, and therefore shouldn't enjoy any publicity or goodwill for their non-sacrifice. There's also this cynical idea that these donations are made purely for PR purposes, not out of any desire to do good. But that's intangible and unquantifiable.
But the donor is making an actual financial sacrifice, a large one, as the GP explained.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you think actually makes the most difference: a) Donating $10B b) Reducing his personal environmental impact to zero You are literally more interested in virtue signalling than making actual change.
I dislike gross displays of privilege. Being rich and advocating for everyone else to reduce consumption while maintaining your own lavish, polluting lifestyle simply because you have the money to “offset” it is obscene.
I dislike when we have two standards of behavior. When someone is not destitute they are expected to conform to a multitude of societal norms, when they are poor every vice and misbehavior is excused.
I propose one standard of expectation and we make everyone follow it.
Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah the donation deduction is just a form of leverage. You effectively pay X but the charity gets 2X (actual multiplier depends on your marginal tax rate). One way of looking at it is that the government is "matching" part of your donation with tax money. But you never make money that way.
You can't make money this way but you can still argue that money that would have gone to taxes has now been redirected by an individual to a cause they solely decided is worthwhile.
But actually the state (society) decides which donations are tax deductible.