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Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

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Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#71

Post by throwaway0a5e »

minikites wrote: post #34
andreilys wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would be surprised to learn that history is littered with examples of the fickle preferences of one person impacting the trajectory of the human species. Also I'm curious why you think that a government is better suited at spending money. From what I've seen this leads to lobbyists doing all they can to curry favor and secure contracts despite the fact that they deliver a sub-par product.

"Great Man history" is a troublesome way to interpret the past and neglects many other forces that shape our society and planet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory

Ignoring the influence one person can have is equally troublesome.

Suppose Constantine never converted to Christianity. Suppose Genghis Khan had been injured before conquering Asia. Suppose Louis the XVI had reformed the French government. Sure some other ruler would probably have embraced Christianity or some other ruler would have conquered Asia but history is fundamentally a sequence of events and minor changes, like a strong ruler in one place or another, can have massive downstream impacts.

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#72

Post by chroem- »

edmundsauto wrote: post #65
chroem- wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A core tenet of communist ideology is violent overthrow of democratic governments to implement a "dictatorship of the proletariat". Both are rooted in violence.

Aren't democracy and communism orthogonal? Admittedly, I'm not a scholar, but it seems to me that democracy is mostly concerned w/ how leaders are chosen. Whereas communism is about how resources are distributed. It sounds possible to have a democratically elected government that sets a communist economic policy.

That's not true, because the goal is to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat through violent revolution. Democracies are incompatible with dictatorship and must be overthrown in order to purge the other social classes. This is why every instance of communism has led to human rights abuses and/or mass murder: totalitarianism is part of the ideology.

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#73

Post by tspike »

Zelphyr wrote: post #9

All the critics lobbing cynicism against Bezos, Branson, and Musk saying, in essence, that their money is better spent here at home reminds me of a wonderful scene from The West Wing when one character asks why we have to go to Mars: "'Cause it's next. For we came out of the cave, and we looked over the hill, and we saw fire. And we crossed the ocean, and we pioneered the West, and we took to the sky. The history of…

That quote is referring to the history of Europeans, not humanity.

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#74

Post by minikites »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #71
minikites wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Great Man history" is a troublesome way to interpret the past and neglects many other forces that shape our society and planet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory

Ignoring the influence one person can have is equally troublesome. Suppose Constantine never converted to Christianity. Suppose Genghis Khan had been injured before conquering Asia. Suppose Louis the XVI had reformed the French government. Sure some other ruler would probably have embraced Christianity or some other ruler would have conquered Asia but history is fundamentally a sequence of events and minor changes, l…

>Suppose Constantine never converted to Christianity

What about the changes in wider Roman society that allowed for Constantine's conversion to have a large impact?

>Suppose Louis the XVI had reformed the French government.

Would those reforms have been carried out by the nobility? Would it have been enough to satisfy the peasants?

Focusing on "great men" is a far too simplistic view of history and it ignores the impact that each of us have on history as individuals.

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#75

Post by skeeter2020 »

consumer451 wrote: post #5
catillac wrote: post #2

There will be a lot of cynicism on this post from the HN crowd, but these are unbelievably good recipients. I have interacted with Jose Andres many times, and go to his DC restaurants when I visit, and he is truly a wonderful soul who spends all his effort helping others. I don’t know much about Van Jones beyond what I see on TV, but if he’s of the same character as Jose Andres, that is stellar and they will both do…

Another reason to temporarily suspend cynicism is that this is a very interesting method of philanthropy. Allowing the recipients to chose their own destinations for the money could lead to a more diverse and disruptive set of expenditures. I am interested to see this award program's effects in 10-20 years. Is this an annual event? I never saw a definitive answer on that.

>> I am interested to see this award program's effects in 10-20 years

One of the challenges of this "pay it forward on steroids" approach is that it will likely be hard to attribute measurable changes to the original investments.

It does seem notable that Bezos has captured a huge set of resources, then paid it out to others for redistribution under their policies and procedures; he's essentially acting like a government which raises some concerns.

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#76

Post by chroem- »

slg wrote: post #62
chroem- wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are suggesting that we hold him to a different standard than everyone else and give him the benefit of the doubt. Other people have had their careers ruined for far, far less, while Jones gets a television gig and $100M for his troubles. And wikipedia does discuss his Leninist activities. See below.

>You are suggesting that we hold him to a different standard than everyone else and give him the benefit of the doubt. The opposite. I am suggesting we allow people to evolve over time. If someone demonstrates that the person they are today is different than the person they were 30 years ago, I think we should be more willing to forgive those 30 year old beliefs. If the person shows no indication of change, I am fine…

Would you say the same things about someone who was formerly a nazi, but who still engaged in far right politics? I do not believe you would.

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#77

Post by Salgat »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #67
peakaboo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how to put this in a polite way... Let's just say your brain seems to have gotten too much TV entertainment. These billionaires made many billions on covid, while you got a 1400 dollar check so you could survive. These billionaires pay their workers minimum wage every day. People can't get toilet breaks at amazon warehouse without being harassed. This guy is a world class parasite. There is nothing "we"…

They also caused me exactly zero suffering. In fact, they actually helped me since I was able to order from Amazon throughout the lockdown.

Who pays for the roads that Amazon depends on for deliveries and employee commutes? Who pays for the k-12 educations and public universities that these employees used to become educated? Who pays for the entire social infrastructure that allows Amazon to even exist? That's what people mean when they say Amazon isn't paying their fair share. They depend on us and taxpayer benefits more than almost any other company in the country, why aren't they also paying a proportional share of their taxes?

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#78

Post by TechBro8615 »

Salgat wrote: post #77
TechBro8615 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also caused me exactly zero suffering. In fact, they actually helped me since I was able to order from Amazon throughout the lockdown.

Who pays for the roads that Amazon depends on for deliveries and employee commutes? Who pays for the k-12 educations and public universities that these employees used to become educated? Who pays for the entire social infrastructure that allows Amazon to even exist? That's what people mean when they say Amazon isn't paying their fair share. They depend on us and taxpayer benefits more than almost any other company in…

Do they not pay payroll taxes for the nearly 100k people they employ?

Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres

#79

Post by slg »

chroem- wrote: post #76
slg wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You are suggesting that we hold him to a different standard than everyone else and give him the benefit of the doubt. The opposite. I am suggesting we allow people to evolve over time. If someone demonstrates that the person they are today is different than the person they were 30 years ago, I think we should be more willing to forgive those 30 year old beliefs. If the person shows no indication of change, I am fine…

Would you say the same things about someone who was formerly a nazi, but who still engaged in far right politics? I do not believe you would.

A Nazi is not the opposite of a communist. Someone doesn't become a Nazi post-WWII because they believe in fascism. They do it because they are motivated by the hateful beliefs of Nazis. Therefore there is a higher barrier to prove that the person has truly changed before they can be forgiven. However there is still a path to forgiveness.
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