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It boggles my my that any time there is an attempt to invest in the built environment of poor communities, someone always cries gentrification.
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Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities
51–60 of 105 posts
Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they're skirting the rules, that's just called following the rules. Why should we expect billionaires to file their taxes suboptimally? The rules are what need changing.
I personally feel a moral obligation to pay my fair share of taxes, especially if I expect my community to be a place I want to be. I could itemize more stuff and pay less but I'm in a position where I can still live comfortably taking the base deduction. In my opinion ultra rich people should be doing the same whether the rules change or not.
The "ultra rich" likely have a different perspective into how tax dollars are continually squandered and abused, which tempers their desire to give it away to some of the most inefficient and corrupt organizations on the planet.
If you feel so strongly about giving your money away, nothing stops you from writing a check to your favorite causes.
Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities
#53Greenwashing. $400M is about what AMZN spent on the totally-unwanted LOTR reboot.
It's bigger than that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Corporation_of_New_Yo... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Foundation And now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos#Philanthropy (not significant enough yet to warrant it's own page) A classic move by e…
Definitely hard to trust their philanthropy. This was also a nice watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH4uh8cHuto
Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities
#54Be better if he just paid taxes.
Taxes -> Uncle Sam -> Some Politician Pockets -> Dumbass projects, pointless initiatives [sometimes fueled by lobbying] -> Maybe some of it finally towards underprivileged communities with a 25% chance? Donating directly to the communities removes all this mess and gets money where it needs to go.
I guess your ridiculous caricature of government spending is a product of a failing educational system.
This is also one of the problems, that will never be fixed aslong as taxes are kind of negotiable for ones above the citizenship/law and people get distracted by this kind of altruist-washing (which can also be a way to dodge taxes).
> Taxes -> Uncle Sam -> Some Politician Pockets -> Dumbass projects.
The issue you highlight is not taxes per se but the political sphere, which can be solved seperately. Rejecting taxes and not acknowledging the root problem _makes you part of the problem_ and useful for the ones profiting from it.
OT: Its ridiculous, that ppl _who voted for 1 of 2 corrupt parties complain about their stolen votes_. This kind of idiocy could also be a useful product of a failed educational systems maybe combined with Murrica-first delusions.
Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities
#55Greenwashing. $400M is about what AMZN spent on the totally-unwanted LOTR reboot.
I mean, nobody should have this much money, so it isn’t like I want to defend the guy, but it was the most expensive show ever. If “less expensive than Rings of Power” is the benchmark, almost every other project in the world is a tiny indie affair. IMO the lesson there is “money can’t buy competence.”
I bet they can make some nice parks for $400M. According to Wikipedia, Disneyland cost $130M adjusted to 2021 dollars. 3 Disneylands isn’t nothing.
Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities
#56Greenwashing. $400M is about what AMZN spent on the totally-unwanted LOTR reboot.
It's also in the ballpark of what one AMZN warehouse in Alabama may have cost to build. ($325M)[1]
I'd like to compare this $400M action to the effort AMZN has spent on paving the planet. ('Making a dent', one might say)
https://www.constructiondive.com/news/amazon-breaks-ground-o...
Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities
#57Quite confused by this. Trees and parks are obviously beneficial in numerous real ways. ...but if you ask someone that is really struggling I doubt their answer as to what they need is "more trees outside my door". From my admittedly ignorant and priviledged position the answer is more likely to be "I can't apply to jobs if i don't have internet". With people that have their back against the wall you have to address…
Ehh you're right, but they don't really have to address showstopper issues. There isn't a lot of upside value in "human issue ranking" as a scrutiny tactic to a donation. Charitable donations aren't public negotiations like they are if you're talking about gov/public funds. Just take the money on offer and build some lovely green spaces.
Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities
#58> The Greening America’s Cities initiative launches with $50 million for urban greening efforts in five cities–Albuquerque, Atlanta... This is ironic given that Atlanta currently has 85 acres of prime greenspace that the city is spending $90M+ to turn into a police training center: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop_City
Never attribute to irony what can be attributed to fuckery.
I don’t know Bezos or Amazon’s stance on cops but I do know that corporations loooooove police - it’s where cops came from. I wouldn’t be surprised if this infusion is specifically to detract from the bad press of Cop City.
Oh wait, I do know Amazon’s stance - I was lying, you see. Amazon, via Ring, has really cozied up to law enforcement. The terms of what they can and can’t do with your data have gotten looser and looser when it comes to sharing data with LE, and this includes the Neighborhood app or whatever. Crime on your street? Ring can hand over all recording data from that time from the cameras on your street without the owner’s consent.
So, given this, I’d be very curious to know how much influence this will have on City (sorry about the emoji, I have an auto replace and got tired of “fixing” it). I’d also be curious to know if similar Urban Warfare centers are planned on the other four locations, as the one in Atlanta is certainly being watched closely by other departments looking to get in on the action (and tax dollars!) of simulating high speed chases and no knock raids!
Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities
#59Albuquerque is a desert, as such greening the city by planting anything is bad. They can still use parks, but parks there need to respect nature and that means very little grass or trees. (not zero of either, but the ground needs to be mostly bare). Hopefully they don't try to force what would be the correct green for the climate of one place on another. We have too much of that already.
A quick look on Google Maps shows some forested hills like right next to Albuquerque. Seems like some greening is viable while respecting the climate and environment.
Re: Bezos Earth Fund Grants $400M for Greening Underserved Urban U.S. Communities
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just because they could afford to give more doesn't make this money meaningless. I'm not saying we need to like, bow down and praise Bezos over this, or that it erases any other bad things he may have done...but let's try to acknowledge that hundreds of millions toward this kind of charity is an actual good thing and not just a pointless PR stunt.
I'd prefer if Amazon et al paid their taxes and society as a whole could decide how to spend it to better itself, through the democracy that we are supposed to live in.
To that end, to put the $400MM in perspective, Amazon has received $671MM of disclosed tax breaks and other subsidies from New York State. [1]
(Context note: NYS 'jobs for tax cuts' program may be the most aggressive in the nation? I'm not an expert.)
[1]: https://goodjobsfirst.org/amazon-tracker/?state=New+York