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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

#871

Post by eli »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #854
eli wrote: post #818

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh great let me just lobby my no senators and single non voting house delegate to fix it. How about in the meantime I don’t have to pay federal taxes if I don’t get a day in how they’re spent? Also: neither VA not DC want retrocession and you can’t force a state to change its borders. So no, the answer is DC statehood, which is something Congress can do. It’s long past time.

I doubt Congress would vote to give the wealthiest people in the country even more power, they would rather it just ctrl-z what was done.

I didn't realize there was an income limit to statehood.

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

#872

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

ModernMech wrote: post #513
ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's seems pretty unlikely now. But what about once the Mar's colony has been established and growing for 300 years+ ?

What makes you so sure that within 300 years, the Mars colony won't become an existential threat with interplanetary nuclear weapons pointed our way? They may even take to calling themselves "Martians" as generations live and die on Mars with little connection to Earth. Like any civilization they'll have their own language, culture, and values. The British colonized America in 1607 and 170 years later those colonists…

That's surely a risk. But even in a worst case scenario the chances of a humanity ending scenario are certainly reduced by having more satellites of human civilization.

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

#873

Post by teawrecks »

eloff wrote: post #457
teawrecks wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give me a 10000 people and 100 billion dollars. I guarantee you I can squander it like a pro.

That's not what's happening here though.

I didn't say it was, I'm responding to your claim that

> you can't employ that many people and spend that much money without advancing the industry.

I'm (jokingly) saying I definitely could.

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

#874

Post by mym1990 »

thundergolfer wrote: post #560
mym1990 wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RIP innovation if the bar is that low

The world's greatest 20th century innovators, such as Einstein and Shannon, did not do their work to get rich. It's more than a little crazy that "innovation" has become so closely associated with ECommerce entrepreneurship, and is assumed to be driven by greed.

My outlook has almost nothing to do with being paid, but rather having the proper rewards for taking a proper risk. For someone like Musk, the reward from PayPal enables him to pursue even greater innovation, which he is doing marvelously. I would bet a large sum that he would not be where he is now if his gains were capped at 100x poverty level.

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

#875

Post by mym1990 »

jonny_eh wrote: post #531
mym1990 wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RIP innovation if the bar is that low

Innovators gonna innovate, they don't need ginormous returns to get out of bed.

This comment is pretty hand wavy, but generally speaking the innovator is not the only part of the puzzle. Our world is still largely driven by investment and risk and something has to balance the scales. I agree that intrinsically motivated people probably care less for the money piece, but there are plenty of innovators that are both extrinsically and intrinsically motivated.

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

#876

Post by [deleted] »

m4rtink wrote: post #783
dumpsterdiver wrote: post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A spaceship is only a vanity item until you actually need it. Who knows when you might need to spend a few years in orbit waiting out a nuclear winter? I’d be interested to see more progress made toward long term space habitats. You don’t need reusable rockets when you don’t plan on coming back anytime soon.

You need reusable rockets and space resources (Moon, asteroids) if you want to do space habitats at any reasonable scale.

[deleted]

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

#877

Post by dumpsterdiver »

m4rtink wrote: post #783
dumpsterdiver wrote: post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A spaceship is only a vanity item until you actually need it. Who knows when you might need to spend a few years in orbit waiting out a nuclear winter? I’d be interested to see more progress made toward long term space habitats. You don’t need reusable rockets when you don’t plan on coming back anytime soon.

You need reusable rockets and space resources (Moon, asteroids) if you want to do space habitats at any reasonable scale.

To be clear, it wasn't my intention to trivialize the amazing accomplishment of reusable rockets, and your point is perfectly valid. I should have left it at me being excited for long term space habitats, and not even mentioned reusable rockets. As you've pointed out, of course reusable rockets will provide immense value to any space habitat. My unspoken position was that there are other ventures worth pursuing aside from the great leaps that leave us all in awe. The little things, like growing space lettuce, intelligent augmented reality to assist astronauts, etc.

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

#878

Post by Salgat »

fallingknife wrote: post #338
Salgat wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No ones saying otherwise, what we're saying is raise the taxes to something reasonable. >You have equal access to the same infrastructure. Feel free to start a trillion dollar company. And this is such a lazy cop-out that ignores that Bezos had parents who funded his company (to the tune of half a million in today's money) during a time where he was in the right place at the right time. It insane how ignorant people…

Would you say that it's reasonable that if you start a business, you get to keep 10% of the value created?

If you start a business, even a billion dollars is an unimaginable amount of money and a reward far greater than any other job in existence. People forget how insanely large a billion dollars is. If that isn't reward enough, then no amount is.

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

#879

Post by [deleted] »

null0pointer wrote: post #726
cantrevealname wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heirs in the United States don't pay capital gains tax, but doesn't the estate of the super rich guy have to pay up to 40% in estate taxes on all his assests (with an exemption on the first ~$5M)? Jeff Bezos is worth $200B. If he died, his estate would have to pay 40% estate tax on $195B in assets (first ~$5M being exempt), which is $78B in tax. That's still a hell of a lot tax. I know there were some loopholes used…

> 40% estate tax on $195B in assets (first ~$5M being exempt) I think you mean $199.995B, but doesn't change the outcome much anyway.

[deleted]
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