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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

#391

Post by pb7 »

monocasa wrote: post #335
bpt3 wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He only has a 1% effective rate if you change the definition of effective rate. I assume you're fine with making that change, but the federal government isn't currently.

The federal government that Amazon spends millions lobbying. I'm well aware that what they're doing is legal; I'm saying it shouldn't be.

Your representatives don't have to accept Amazon's bribes, you know. They choose to do so because they're corrupt and convinced you to be mad at a different party entirely while they pocket the cash for future campaigns where they convince other people like you that they will serve your interests.

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

#392

Post by WalterBright »

monocasa wrote: post #371
WalterBright wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government did indeed put man on the moon. But they did it at an insane and unsustainable cost, which is why the moon was then abandoned. Musk/Bezos/Branson are making space travel a paying proposition, which makes all the difference.

The Apollo program was about $120B in today's money all said and done. And that's with 1960's manufacturing processes. The complete Gemini program was about $10B. Blue Origin is up to ~$10B already and hasn't even gone orbital yet.

I googled "cost of Apollo program" and it comes to $257 billion in today's dollars.

Also, the economy was considerably smaller in those days, and so the Apollo program took up a much larger share of it.

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

#393

Post by kelnos »

qvrjuec wrote: post #357
kelnos wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the negativity is the expectation that we'll eventually screw up any other plant we inhabit as well. Which I think is true, unless we make some fundamental changes to our society. But I agree that it's important to make planetary colonization a priority now rather than waiting. We can -- and should -- develop the technology and expertise needed to build a settlement on Mars while simultaneously trying…

The main argument for colonizing planets is some kind of cataclysm destroying earth that we had nothing to do with, e.g. meteor or gamma ray burst. It doesn't make sense to set up shop somewhere else otherwise, as we could spend resources to make earth more habitable way more easily than other planets

Yes, I understand that, but I think the belief among some people is that, as long as we are being irresponsible stewards of Earth, we will be equally irresponsible with any other planet we colonize. And if life on Earth is destroyed by a meteor, that will still be the case. Some seem to believe that this is a reason to get a handle on our own destructive tendencies toward our environment before we try to colonize other planets. But I agree that it'd be better to have a somewhat-environmentally-destructive bunch of humans on Mars, rather than waiting and risking extinction because a meteor hit Earth before we got our shit together.

I do believe, however, that it will be at least a couple hundred years before a colony on Mars will not only be self-sufficient, but capable of flourishing, if some extinction event were to befall Earth. That doesn't mean that we should give up or stop working on it right now, but I think the reality check is important.

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

#394

Post by Causality1 »

hemloc_io wrote: post #138
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…

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…

Seconding this. Musk is a workaholic who happens to be a total jackass on Twitter but his employees are well paid and to the best of my knowledge aren't forced to piss in bottles at work.

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

#395

Post by wilsonnb3 »

aeternum wrote: post #216
sweetheart wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is total fallacy, I'm sorry. "We do this thing because we have always done this thing" isn't actual any justification whatsoever. It's whats leftover when realizing you're having a hard time actually justifying why it needs to be done. "It's the way things are" are perhaps in all seriousness the 5 most dangerous words in the English language.

We need to go to space because if we don't, all of humanity will go extinct. The earth won't last forever and also tends not to fare well when it goes 1:1 with asteroids or nukes.

That’s okay. Nothing lasts forever.

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

#396

Post by [deleted] »

pb7 wrote: post #102
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"…

>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…

[deleted]

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

#397

Post by superfrank »

geocrasher wrote: post #359
superfrank wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're correct, but that doesn't really change the point I was trying to make Since you've edited your post, I'll respond to the rest. > But they're also just carnival rides for Billionaires, and that's what gets on peoples nerves. If Bezos or Branson had sent someone else up in their place, does that really change anything? Sure, it's expensive and only the super wealthy can afford to go into space right now, but th…

Sorry about that, I realized I had more to say after I had posted the reply. Your point about expensive technology becoming more affordable in the long run- that makes a lot of sense, and I totally get it. At first, basic air travel was such a thing, as was travel by rail. Or fancy carriage. So yes. That much is true. And I think if they'd sent up other billionaires instead, it would have made no difference. The trut…

> The truth is that a lot of people are hurting badly, and to watch others do extravagant things that don't make a difference for the bettering of humanity now just pours salt on the 'wound' of poverty. For many people, it's visible proof of the gaps getting wider and wider.

I hear you there, but I don't understand why Musk gets a free pass then? He's just as rich as Bezos and just as out of touch with what the needs of average American.

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

#398

Post by causalmodels »

edmundsauto wrote: post #53
whymauri wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I felt like I entered a wormhole in the GP comment where the ocean wasn't on fire, the Amazon wasn't burning down, a heat wave didn't sweep through the Northwest, and the polar caps aren't melting at an irreversible rate. The largest redistribution of wealth in history is happening right now while the global environment collapses and somehow there are cheerleaders egging it on so rich guys can play around in sub-orbi…

Is wealth being redistributed, or are the Bezos’ simply slurping up the new money that have been so abundant? It matters, I think. Because if people are only getting relatively poorer when compared to the top 1%, it’s not as bad as if they are losing their standard of living. There are other issues about how excessively rich people can distort our society, but that’s not so much about the redistribution but the distr…

I think wealth actually is being redistributed, but not in the sort of nefarious way that some people are claiming.

Last year incomes went up for the lowest earners. When less wealthy people get more money they tend to buy material, mass market goods. Large corporations tend to be the main suppliers of those goods. Thus, increasing buying power at the lower end of the income distribution results in companies earning more money.

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

#399

Post by rootusrootus »

alttab wrote: post #382
X6S1x6Okd1st wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I mean Blue Origin has been running for 20 years and the best we have from them is flights that were accomplished in the Cold War? Blue Origin's is reusable. That's a huge difference.

SpaceX has already done that, in less time, and took humans to the ISS.

So we should stop? SpaceX did it first, everyone else can just fold up shop?

C'mon. Blue Origin has a proper rocket, it seems very capable. They even land the booster like SpaceX does. To be unimpressed with their achievements seems like sour grapes.

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

#400

Post by lordnacho »

lr4444lr wrote: post #349
lordnacho wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 l…

> If suddenly the employer portion of the payroll tax disappeared...

That's what I'm saying. The piece that's added or removed is negotiated over, it doesn't just belong to whoever has their name on it.

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