What an overtly political move by Bezos. He could have donated to libraries, schools, medical research … nope donates to defacto narrative control.
Those damn chefs.
Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
441–450 of 879 posts
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#442All 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…
It's how we get to the moon and Mars and how we survive as a species. This is unbelievably pessimistic. You're literally saying that Earth is beyond repair and the only way for humans to survive is to move to a rock in orbit that we've spent a total of 3 days on in the past 70 years, or to a planet no one has visited that has radiation that makes life essentially impossible for us. Assuming that's true, let's run som…
> This is unbelievably pessimistic.
It's not pessimistic, it's realistic. It's just that what the parent poster means by "how we survive as a species" and what you mean are...different things.
Going to the moon, going to mars, are necessary for the survival of our species...on a 100,000 year time horizon.
At some point, something catastrophic may happen to earth. An asteroid impact, or a Gamma Ray Burst, or some other unexpected cataclysm. If a GRB happened to hit earth in 10,000 years, we only survive as a species if we're self-sufficient on other rocks by then.
If your time-frame of "how we survive as a species" is the next 100 years, then colonizing the moon or mars isn't on the list of potential solutions. I know of very few people who advocate that the moon and mars are the solutions to our climate change issues. Climate change is a crisis that we have to confront within the next 100 years. It's extremely unlikely that any moon or mars base would be self-sufficient within that time frame.
To survive as a species, the human race has to eventually be able to survive a fatal blow to earth and keep going. Hell, eventually we have to be able to deal with a fatal blow to this entire solar system.
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#443If billionaires entrust their money to more or less random people for philanthropic objectives I rather have them be taxed higher and let a (somewhat inefficient) government decide how to invest the money. At least I had a role in electing the government and can change my vote based on their performance.
Give it to the government instead? That's insane. Live a few years here in Wisconsin, and then talk to me about how we should give the thieves in the government more money. Foxconn much? Better to choose a few good people and give it to them. Best part about the Bezos method is that all of us can also make a boatload of money and give it to people we trust to distribute it. Under your proposition, all of us have to g…
Im Not sure why you are being downvoted.
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#444Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> 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. That's kind of a silly argument in my mind. Tesla started out making electric sports cars that cost $100,000+ each. Just because a company focuses on high margin products for the super rich when they are starting off, doesn't mean they…
Sure, but in the automotive world Musk is taken to task plenty when it comes to "more serious" EV's with more moderate performance that appeal to a broader market. He is given credit for popularizing the market, again, thanks to his carnival barker style, but he isn't bringing EV's to the masses. That's a large void that companies like Ford, Volkswagen and Toyota are filling =/
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#445All 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…
Being on the moon or mars isn't helpful if you still need all your supplies to come from the earth.
The survival of our species depends on us being able to keep ecosystems running, and we can do that on earth.
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#446All 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 agree, I think another way to put it is would you rather have your tax dollars spent on advancing rocket technologies (via NASA or equivalent) or would you rather have Bezos spend his after-tax dollars on it. Put like that, it's not a tough decision
Except that both companies are competing for govt money. SpaceX is already serving NASA
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#447Earlier quoted context omitted.
I vehemently disagree. Handing out cash to the poor isn’t fixing the problem. It will make matters worse (inflation). It’s almost unbelievable that investing in education and apprenticeship is considered a negative thing but giving straight up cash from Billionaires is popular. Homelessness and poverty needs to be tackled by getting these people jobs.
> I vehemently disagree. Handing out cash to the poor isn’t fixing the problem. It will make matters worse (inflation). Huh? Bezos giving away money likely isn't going to lead to inflation. The money supply is held constant here.
I was referring about the concept of giving people cash (UBI) in general and replying to the comment above mine.
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's how we get to the moon and Mars and how we survive as a species. This is unbelievably pessimistic. You're literally saying that Earth is beyond repair and the only way for humans to survive is to move to a rock in orbit that we've spent a total of 3 days on in the past 70 years, or to a planet no one has visited that has radiation that makes life essentially impossible for us. Assuming that's true, let's run som…
I don't think it's pessimistic at all. The Earth is fucked. Not by humans, just by itself. It will be fucked within a few hundred million years simply because the sun is going to get bright enough to boil away the oceans. If we want any hope of our legacy to carry on in the universe, we need to begin exploring the possibilities now, because we have the scientific knowledge and technological capabilities to begin that…
Mars and the Moon will be unusable long before Earth in that scenario. Our atmosphere is a really good shield.
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#449Earlier 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…
No one has a problem with dick measuring contests, the criticism is that Bezos and Branson aren't "whipping it out", so to speak. They're just continuing to do what's already been done before and drumming up press about it.
I don't have a position one way or the other, it just sounded like you were missing the argument of the post you responded to.
Re: Bezos donates $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres
#450Earlier 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.
Yes, blue origin was founded in 2000 and spacex founded in 2002.
Blue origin landed it's first rocket in 2005. It was a tiny rocket and a tiny flight and purely for testing.
SpaceX landed it's first rocket in 2015. It was an orbital flight delivering real value.
Would it have made sense for SpaceX to stop because blue origin already flew a reusable rocket?