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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

#521

Post by peteretep »

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.

> Bezos is not 1 million times more productive

Bezos has unambiguously produced 1m times more than what most humans have.

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

#522

Post by Salgat »

pb7 wrote: post #364
Salgat wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying he is evil or that he doesn't deserve his success, I'm addressing his point that Bezos isn't just a product of his own talents, but that of his situation and the opportunities he was provided by our society.

That's the case for literally everyone in our society. Can I take your money then, since you're a product of a society I contributed to?

Absolutely. In fact, I make more than most Americans ($300k household income) and I wouldn't mind more progressive tax brackets, especially if it meant we could provide our fellow countrymen with basic necessities like healthcare and continued education. My voting record reflects this sentiment. The funny thing is, Bezos has a lower tax rate than me and he's a billionaire.

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

#523

Post by andrepd »

pb7 wrote: post #372
ModernMech wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been trying to get a meeting with my Senators to express my opinion, but they won't have me. They regularly take meetings with corporate lobbyists though. I wonder what it is they're telling my Senators? Sure wish I had $10 million to spend on lobbyists like Amazon.

You elected Senators that don't care about your opinion. Maybe you should be more mad at them and less mad at Amazon who provides millions of people with exactly the goods and services they promise.

Such a lazy deflection. When corruption happens you can be mad at both the corrupter and the corruptee.

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

#524

Post by andrepd »

misiti3780 wrote: post #435
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"…

He's a parasite because the company (which hired 100K new workers during COVID) that he started and owns a shit-ton of equity in went up in the past year because of lockdowns?

Yes. By reasons I expounded in another comment I believe a percentage of any enterprises's shares (in the order of at least 20%) should be owned by the public and pay out an equal dividend to every citizen.

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

#525

Post by ishjoh »

edmundsauto wrote: post #293
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aren't democracy and communism orthogonal? Theoretically, yes. Practically, if you concentrate all ownership in the state you remove the means by which private citizens can check it.

Isn’t communism ownership by the people? I thought totalitarianism or fascism is where the state owns the means of production.

I'm not aware of any communist country that didn't turn into an authoritarian state where the government imposed strict censorship and controls on the population.

When you look at why, it starts to make sense. Without strict economic controls black markets start to appear, where goods are bought and sold outside of the communist economy. Communist philosophy requires that black markets don't exist, because they allow for capitalism, private property, and a market economy. So Communism requires that these things be removed from society, which requires brute force.

Therefore taken from first principles, Communism is an authoritarian philosophy because it controls an individuals ability to buy, sell, and trade goods.

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

#526

Post by Decker87 »

jamesgreenleaf wrote: post #259
sofixa wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's how we get to the moon and Mars and how we survive as a species. It's what's next. I find it extremely weird that people are banking on a (almost literal) moonshot for the survival of our species. Isn't trying to stop/lessen the damage we're doing to the place we currently live and which can sustain us better and more optimistic proposition than hoping a metric shitton of things go perfectly after probably mil…

The Earth is going to die one day. The Sun will die too. There is no guarantee that intelligent life will survive on this single planet, even if we do a perfect job of taking care of it. Catastrophic, species-killing events can happen at any time. If we wish to ensure the long-term survival of the only intelligent life in the universe that we know about (as well as the survival of all the other creatures on Earth, wh…

I respect your position but I completely disagree. We are so far off from needing to worry about the sun dying out. We should be focused on stopping and reversing climate change.

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

#527

Post by kennywinker »

Without scale, reporting on donations like this is nothing but PR for the ultra rich.

Bezos donated $200M, his net worth: $211 billion

Scale that to a normal human’s net worth - let’s take the national average: $121,411

And you see that he just gave away the equivalent of $120 dollars. Barely pocket change.

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

#528

Post by ishjoh »

gameswithgo wrote: post #122
kypro wrote: post #115

Kind of genius… My understanding as a Brit is that CNN are known to be supportive of progressive economic policies. I suspect they’re also critical of the existence of billionaires like Bezos in a society where many struggle to feed their families. Bribing influential CNN contributors who hold progressive or far-left economic policies is probably one of the better ways to help shift the media narrative towards one th…

orrr, maybe bezos is also very progressive?

Then he doesn't walk the walk. He has ample opportunity to write a check to the government and rally for tax schemes that directly and only effect billionaires.

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

#529

Post by shkkmo »

maccam94 wrote: post #436
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…

I think it's viewed as wasteful because it doesn't actually get people into orbit, AND it is expensive. Thus, it's only really appealing to rich people with cash to burn. These vehicles aren't even stepping stones to orbital rockets, and orbital launch prices are dropping. It's much more likely that SpaceX will offer tickets to orbit for $25k in the next 5-10 years than it will be for Virgin Galactic to do so. Blue O…

Blue Origin is building and firing the BE-4 engines that will be used by New Glen and I rather doubt that there isn't work being done to fabricate other systems given the work that has been completed on their Florida manufacturing facility.

Do you have sources that indicate fabrication has not started?

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

#530

Post by viraptor »

jeffbee wrote: post #483
viraptor wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla's plan from the start was: luxury cars now to fund cheaper mass production later.

That doesn't stand scrutiny of the facts. Tesla lost money on every Model S.

https://www.tesla.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-j...

> In keeping with a fast growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to drive down the costs and bring the follow on products to market as fast as possible. When someone buys the Tesla Roadster sports car, they are actually helping pay for development of the low cost family car.

Not only was that the plan in 2006, you'd expect them to lose a bit of money as long as they have available funds, in order to get to mass production faster.

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