81–90 of 105 posts
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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.
What taxes do they not pay? Have you contacted the IRS about this tax evasion? They have a whistleblower program so you could pocket some cash!
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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.
Nor does it make this donation somehow responsible for stopping those other good things from happening.
Quite 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…
I’ve done volunteer work (tangentially) with one of the organizations that got a grant in Chicago. They are very much grassroots, very much from an extremely disadvantaged area, and are routinely praised by their constituents. Turns out that poor people have diverse needs and desires, some of which is access to clean green spaces.
Part of the problem that things like this fix is "catastrophic paralysis" where you get stuck trying to find the single most advantageous thing you can do, which often ends up being subsumed into converting money into political blathering.
Whereas if you spend $400m to plant trees, you get trees (or, sadly, you get trees that die instantly because you didn't manage the project at all to verify that the trees will do something, and instead burnt it on a tree planting company that doesn't care if they survive).
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I always like how good old Warren Buffett is calling for high earners to be taxed more, yet he never seems to show up on any of these high earner lists...
He doesn't tend to show up in the lists because he pays himself relatively little (compared to other billionaires). Between 2014-18 he had income of $125m, and paid tax of $23.7m[1]. That's still lower than the average American absolute tax rate, but way higher than most other billionaires. So he's a bit less of a sensational headline than his contemporaries. His wealth growth of $24.3bn is untaxed through those year…
Albuquerque 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.
The "bosque" (forest) along the river is a riparian oasis compared to parts of the city 5-8 miles away, and historically was a major agricultural area. This changed somewhat when in the 1940s the bureau of reclamation began damming the river and providing water to other areas.
So while I certainly appreciate your concern, it is easy to overstate the issue (and also easy to ignore it, as has been done in the past).
To upquote Carlin: They are black. They are poor. They are hungry. They live in bad neighborhoods. They have arees have a substantial problem with crime. and often with drugs.
They need money, food, opportunity, education and jobs that pay a living wage.
Bezos being part of the 0.01% (?) super rich elite, lounges in his luxury ivory tower and thinks well "well what the negros need are trees and grass that will make it all so much better"
No, What Bezo needs to do is start paying his workers a living wage, full health insurance, allow them to unionize. give their kids a better chance at higher education.
Stop treating the workers and slave automatons that go to the bathroom far too often and get hurt on the job far too often.
As long as Bezo derives his wealth in part because of his exploitation of "Underserved urban U.S. workers" he is despicable no matter how many feet of grass or trees he is sponsoring out of the petty cash drawer.
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How is that inconsistent?
Because the narrative being developed around him is that he is such a selfless guy, humble midwestern values, wants good for America, yet he structures his affairs in a way that he pays as little tax as possible and would be largely unaffected by increased income tax...
> Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities [committed by one’s enemies] in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one’s first feeling, “Thank God, even they aren’t quite so bad as that,” or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally, we shall insist on seeing everything—God and our friends and ourselves included—as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed forever in a universe of pure hatred.
Bezos is a complicated figure, and there are other causes that could also use money, but this appears to be an inarguably good thing, so let's take the win.
> 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
> given that Atlanta currently has 85 acres of prime greenspace that the city is spending $90M+ to turn into a police training center You mean the not prime green space that was a prison farm and illegal waste dump site for seven decades?
It's an okish natural area right now, but it's hardly pristine wildlife, and while I'm not a huge fan of the APD - I don't think that removing training opportunities (and potential revenue from surrounding areas that use the facilities) is really the right solution.
For context - I've been in Atlanta 34 years, and live in South Atlanta now.
Frankly, I don't understand the "cop city" drama. It feels entirely manufactured.
The US modern politically correct language is about obscuring things. "Underserved urban U.S. communities" To upquote Carlin: They are black. They are poor. They are hungry. They live in bad neighborhoods. They have arees have a substantial problem with crime. and often with drugs. They need money, food, opportunity, education and jobs that pay a living wage. Bezos being part of the 0.01% (?) super rich elite, lounge…
This is beyond ridiculous. Rare is a comment that can offend people from all backgrounds, but here it is. Flagged.