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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

#341

Post by tdfx »

courtf wrote: post #252
tdfx wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it may even contribute to our literal suicide as a species Much as choosing to stay on earth is guaranteed suicide for humanity, on a long enough timescale. I would hate to see all of our eggs in one basket.

On a long enough timescale aliens will come and rescue us! See how silly that sounds? Pretending to save humanity with absurdities is a cowardly way of facing the real, imminent problems we actually have here and now.

I don't understand why you think sustaining human life anywhere beyond earth is an absurdity. The large technological hurdles you mentioned aren't going to solve themselves, we have to start somewhere, and the sooner the better.

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

#342

Post by UnpossibleJim »

superfrank wrote: post #271
hemloc_io wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's really fair to lump Bezos, Branson, and Musk into the same bucket. Musk, for all his flaws, started an actual rocket company with new and frankly insane tech. Bezos and especially Branson's ventures feel much more like personal vanity projects than something that will actually push space exploration. I mean Blue Origin has been running for 20 years and the best we have from them is flights that wer…

> Bezos and especially Branson's ventures feel much more like personal vanity projects than something that will actually push space exploration. I'm not sure why people feel this need to draw this weird line in the sand and say that SpaceX is okay because Musk built a business, but Blue Origin and Virgin are bad because... reasons? Technology advances for all sorts of reasons. Lamborghinis exist because a farmer was…

I think one of the main reasons that a line gets drawn between Musk and the others is the focus of the business models. While Musk focuses of space station resupply and satellite launch, in addition to "Mars Missions", Branson and Bezos have fully stated that they are in the business of space tourism. Those are very real reasons to draw a line in the sand between SpaceX and Blue Origin and Virgin.

As for the founders. Meh. They're circus show men, but at least Musk comes from an engineering back ground, I guess? But the difference in mission is important.

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

#343

Post by WalterBright »

Hokusai wrote: post #99
lefrenchy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We literally got to the moon before any billionaires bought joy rides to lower orbit, so what you’re saying is proven false already by history? It’s so insane to me that people honestly believe that we need billionaires to fund all their hedonic desires in order to achieve anything good and useful as a society. It’s provably false and frankly an absolutely pessimistic view of society and humanity.

You are 100% right. A million people can own $1000 in a corporation, or 1 person can own $1,000,000,000. The company has the same capital but wealth is distributed differently. Even if we needed big corporations, we still do not need billionaires.

Countries without billionaires are mired in poverty. Billionaires can make high risk investments. A million people won't.

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

#344

Post by dahfizz »

ModernMech wrote: post #322
robotastronaut wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally don’t think many people are banking on colonizing another planet, but rather the technologies created as byproducts of that effort. Between energy creation, energy storage, thermal regulation, extraction and refinement of products necessary for life (oxygen, water, etc), and transformation of atmospheric gases, there’s plenty that can help keep our current planet healthy and suitable for human life.

But why do we have to go to Mars to invent all those things? Aren't there enough incentives to invent them in the context of helping our own planet?

Clearly not.

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

#345

Post by bluedevil2k »

snowwrestler wrote: post #316
robotresearcher wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You die without ever selling your stocks. Your heirs can pay off your loans by selling some of the stocks they inherit. Their cost basis for those stocks is their value at the time of inheritance. This way no capital gains tax is ever due on the stock gains made in your lifetime.

Sure but Bezos’ heirs will certainly blast past the exemption on the estate tax, which exists specifically as a backstop against this type of situation. They will pay taxes on most of what they inherit.

That’s what trusts are for! To avoid the estate tax.

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

#346

Post by bluedevil2k »

bpt3 wrote: post #302
ALittleLight wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you have to repay those loans eventually incurring the tax burden when you do, right?

For Bezos (and the wealthy in general), the interest rate on the loan is lower than your capital gains, so you can just keep rolling the loan forward forever.

And the interest is sometimes tax deductible

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

#347

Post by vernie »

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…

https://twitter.com/meganamram/status/1087143660389466112?la...

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

#348

Post by Karsteski »

ModernMech wrote: post #322
robotastronaut wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally don’t think many people are banking on colonizing another planet, but rather the technologies created as byproducts of that effort. Between energy creation, energy storage, thermal regulation, extraction and refinement of products necessary for life (oxygen, water, etc), and transformation of atmospheric gases, there’s plenty that can help keep our current planet healthy and suitable for human life.

But why do we have to go to Mars to invent all those things? Aren't there enough incentives to invent them in the context of helping our own planet?

Would the internet have been invented if not for military interests? Innovation, especially massive leaps, is born from necessity and drive, not "let's improve our technology".

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

#349

Post by lr4444lr »

lordnacho wrote: post #187
techrat wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. The people they employ pay the payroll taxes out of their salary. No company pays payroll taxes for their employees.

This is more complicated than you make it out to be. The person who literally sends the money according to the law is not the same as the one who pays in the economic sense. For instance, you could transfer the legal obligation to the other party, but that would change the negotiating position between the employer and the employee. Similarly, you can add a sales tax to some product, and make the company that sells th…

Not really. Firms hire based on the cost of an employee. If suddenly the employer portion of the payroll tax disappeared, there would immediately be an incentive to funnel those funds into the salary to make job offerings stand out against what the employee's other options would be. Sure, some firms would pocket it, but it beggars belief that most of them would, when they've already made a decision to open a hiring line based on the funds available and projected revenue.

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

#350

Post by pb7 »

coliveira wrote: post #272
pb7 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>These billionaires made many billions on covid, while you got a 1400 dollar check so you could survive. They made billions from excellent businesses on which the world relied during a time of crisis. What would people have done without the likes of Amazon and fast delivery of nearly everything? >These billionaires pay their workers minimum wage every day. No one makes minimum wage at Amazon. >People can't get toilet…

> They made billions from excellent businesses Bezos is not 1 million times more productive than other human beings. He just managed to create a system that exploits people in a massive scale. That's not what I call excellent business.

Who said that he was? Wealth has little to do with productivity.
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