Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 237 posts

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#121

Post by scarejunba »

beachy wrote: post #34

On one level this is to be applauded. On another, shipping cheap plastic junk from China all over the world, to finish up in landfill a few years later, is the very definition of environmental vandalism and is Amazon's core business model.

The real value people like him provide is to make it so that normal people can outsource their sin (and the corresponding indulgences) to him.

Someone's got to be buying the cheap plastic junk, my friend. You need a buyer for the middleman to profit.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#122

Post by BurningFrog »

inerte wrote: post #96
planetzero wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does this matter? If he truly is pledging $10B, it can only be a win for society and the future of humanity. It shouldn't really matter if he gets a tax break or not.

Well, three things. First of all, I searched and couldn't find he's actually giving $10b. What I mean is that I don't know if the $10b accounts for any Amazon investments / costs. Second, it's not -$10b if he's getting a tax break for some of this. It's $7.6b as someone else mentioned. I know, still a lot of money! But he's not loosing $10b from his fortune. Third, in this case you happen to think it's a win for soci…

> The lack of accountability for the influence billionaires have in our society should be a concern

The thing is, a lot of us like that what people do with their own money is not accountable to the government.

I think it's essential that not all of society is under control by a single central power.

EDIT: As someone said on Twitter - "Say what you want about billionaires, I doubt any of them would have decided to give farmers $10 billion to not grow crops."

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#123

Post by wtracy »

humbledrone wrote: post #74
inerte wrote: post #20

After reading Winners Take All my level of cynicism is through the roof with headlines like this. $10b of his own personal fortune? That won't results in tax breaks / deduction because can be considered a donation? Or does that include money Amazon-the-company is spending on "climate change" efforts, such as buying electric delivery trucks instead of gas ones? Investments in "green datacenters"? Is any of this new in…

I frequently see the "they're just doing this for the tax breaks" sentiment for these kinds of donations (especially when the donor is a corporation or hyper-wealthy individual) but I don't understand the reasoning. From what I understand of tax deductions, a donation of $X basically means that the donor can skip paying taxes on $X of income. This results in a savings of tax% * $X, which is always The tax deduction a…

The argument seems to be that the donor is not making any actual financial sacrifice, and therefore shouldn't enjoy any publicity or goodwill for their non-sacrifice.

There's also this cynical idea that these donations are made purely for PR purposes, not out of any desire to do good. But that's intangible and unquantifiable.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#124

Post by chongli »

rapind wrote: post #94
s1artibartfast wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As others said, why should it matter? I would be happy even if he got an 100% tax credit. what percent of tax revenue would have gone to climate change vs bombing some civilians in Afghanistan.

We shouldn't care because it's better that a billionaire chooses where that money goes instead of a democratically elected government? I'm not poking fun either. That's really what you seem to be saying. Does this still work if he puts this money towards a cause you're not keen of?

Because the government is doing a terrible job with the trillions it already spends? What difference would 10 billion make to the US government? Basically nothing.

This sort of knee-jerk antagonism against billionaires spending their money on philanthropic causes is so common these days. I think Scott over at Slate Star Codex has a very good piece on this [1].

[1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/07/29/against-against-billio...

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#126

Post by DennisP »

rapind wrote: post #94
s1artibartfast wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As others said, why should it matter? I would be happy even if he got an 100% tax credit. what percent of tax revenue would have gone to climate change vs bombing some civilians in Afghanistan.

We shouldn't care because it's better that a billionaire chooses where that money goes instead of a democratically elected government? I'm not poking fun either. That's really what you seem to be saying. Does this still work if he puts this money towards a cause you're not keen of?

So far as 538 can figure out, our democratically-elected government has spent less than $10 billion fighting climate change in the past 25 years put together.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-is-the-governm...

So personally I'm not impressed with our government's ability to allocate funds towards useful causes.

If another billionaire spends their money on a cause I don't care about so much, fine, at least they didn't spend my money on it. And they'd go to prison if they did anything near so offensive as some of the things the government has been up to lately.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#127

Post by tpmx »

rpiguy wrote: post #93
tpmx wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just for your sake I included the market cap as well. Edit: Seriously: this topic seems really hot. So many people seem to care about it when it's spoken about in a negative way. Maybe calm down a bit? Am I experiencing outright bullying right now? That's not a great visual for anyone, just saying.

It’s incredibly difficult to present a dissenting opinion on certain topics here because of the downvoting system. It used to bother me to see points go down (upon reflection the upvote/downvote system really seems to reward groupthink). I think it would better to just have upvotes. The way the system is designed today the only people who will present a dissenting opinion on a hot topic are either very inured to soci…

You're just supposed to be 100% positive, all of the time.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#128

Post by jdminhbg »

rapind wrote: post #94
s1artibartfast wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As others said, why should it matter? I would be happy even if he got an 100% tax credit. what percent of tax revenue would have gone to climate change vs bombing some civilians in Afghanistan.

We shouldn't care because it's better that a billionaire chooses where that money goes instead of a democratically elected government? I'm not poking fun either. That's really what you seem to be saying. Does this still work if he puts this money towards a cause you're not keen of?

The post you’re replying to already explained where the democratically elected government is choosing to spend the money. Billionaire seems to be making better decisions.

Re: Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Address Climate Change

#130

Post by throwaway_tech »

klausjensen wrote: post #6
rpiguy wrote: post #2

Billionaire invests $10B dollars to virtue signal and control the behavior of the poor, while not changing his lifestyle at all. 165M dollar environmentally excessive mansion, private jets, and a rocket program that dumps carbon into the air. I’ll be impressed when billionaires actually make sacrifices themselves, rather than just write checks. Checks are important, but let’s be real about these people.

What do you think actually makes the most difference: a) Donating $10B b) Reducing his personal environmental impact to zero You are literally more interested in virtue signalling than making actual change.

>What do you think actually makes the most difference: a) Donating $10B b) Reducing his personal environmental impact to zero

How does that Gandhi quote go: Be the change you want to see in the World... or was it pay for the change you want to see in the World?

You think Gandhi would have effected the change he did by paying others to engage in acts of civil disobedience? Paid others to break imperial laws and get arrested? Paid others to engage in hunger strikes?

Gandhi was a western educated and trained lawyer, but he boycotted western clothing and adopted the dhoti...it is not just a symbol (or virtue signaling) but it was a necessary act. Whereas $10B from Bezos for Climate change appears to be just a symbol, because he continues to head a Company that facilitates unbridled consumerism and global consumption and he seems unwilling to make personal sacrifices to his lavish lifestyle.

Post reply on HN