An Elon / Jeff space willy-waving contest about who gets to be Space Bro Alpha seems like a net win for humanity
I like Mr Burnham's take on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7p57mBnVa4
Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
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Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
'google: "SpaceX subsidies" SpaceX gets almost $900 million in federal subsidies to deliver broadband to rural America https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/tech/spacex-starlink-subsidie... SpaceX just won $885 million in federal subsidies to expand Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite-internet project https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/spacex-just-won-do... In addition to that SpaceX is government contractor. SpaceX and…
Are you suggesting $1.8M for expansion of Starlink to deliver broadband to rural America is not a net win? As someone in the midwest US, Starlink is the first realistic opportunity for many people I know to access broadband internet. My mother-in-law has had to teach from home all year using her cellphone as a hotspot because that's the best internet she could get no matter how much she payed.
I'm not suggesting.
People are engaged in heated normative[1] discussion with little or no facts. I am not. Even saying Tesla is a great example of a government project does not mean it's good or bad. Just a great example.
I just wanted to add some facts to the discussion. Not enough, but some. I think it would be great to find out the total indirect and direct subsidies these companies receive, but I could not find it.
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1: Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good or desirable or permissible and others as bad or undesirable or impermissible.
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
$900 million = 5 days of federal food stamps spending $3-4 billion = 3 weeks of federal food stamps spending I know which I think is the better government expenditure
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Food stamp recipients are usually obese
They can't "rise up" from the couch, do you really think they are going to "rise up" and start a revolution?
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#134I mean it would look bad if he wasn't aboard, wouldn't it? "Pay lots of money for my space ride [that I'm not going to actually go on myself]"
It seems more desperate. I think he's jealous of musk, as he should be. Musk is doing so much net good for humanity, while Bezos seems more like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons.
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oligarchs were basically given large existing monopolies and then just sit on them and make money with no reason to innovate. While it’s a fun jibe to throw at them it’s a completely different thing to just being insanely wealthy through actually doing something effectively (if sometimes immorally)
Is that what makes an oligarch? The way I use it, oligarch implies political power. You could, in theory, be a poor oligarch.
As you said, oligarch implies power, and with power one typically controls resources in a way that wealth can be generated for selfish purposes. The strict definition is something like "ruling by few", but I've always thought of it as rule by the extremely wealthy since that's how it typically seems to play out.
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could you be more specific? "A lot of damage to humanity" is a quite strong claim with deep ethical implications. I would prefer a concrete example of such an act.
It would take me a week to go through every detail but wikipedia has some summaries: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(company)#Controversies - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla,_Inc.#Lawsuits_and_contr...
What constitutes "lots of damage to humanity" in those paragraphs you've provided?
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Hungry starving sick people make the least effective revolutionaries. They’re also not very good at spending money on consumer goods when they don’t have any, which Amazon absolutely needs. (Tesla needs a lot of people above average income, given their cheapest offering). And these two giants aren’t the only places people can work. (Not enough by itself, but still a massive improvement compared to the situation leadi…
> Hungry starving sick people make the least effective revolutionaries.
This is clearly historically incorrect.
> Super-rich as a class exists because we let them exist, but there is a reason we let them exist…
What reason is that? They exist because they are powerful, thus hard to topple. That the SEC and FTC are so ineffective (and ridiculously small pieces of the puzzle) is evidence of that.
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Food stamp recipients are usually obese They can't "rise up" from the couch, do you really think they are going to "rise up" and start a revolution?
That’s a ridiculous stereotype. Regardless, how long do you think one can stay obese without food?
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Food stamp recipients are usually obese They can't "rise up" from the couch, do you really think they are going to "rise up" and start a revolution?
Based on my visits to the USA, I think that’s mainly because Taco Bell and McD are cheaper than anything even vaguely healthy from any American supermarket.
(Regions visited: Central and North California, I-80 highway between SF and Salt Lake City, New York-Newark conurbation, Boston-Providence area)
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#140I was a bit shocked how Jeff Bezos looked in the video [0] in which he invited his brother to go with him. He does not look healthy, even a bit bloated. Does anyone know if he is having health issues? [0] https://www.instagram.com/p/CP0MSOqnYEo/
The facial bloating could be from medication such as corticosteroids or ACE inhibitors. Taking the flight this early before more testing may also indicate that he is not well. It might also explain him leaving Amazon.
Or he's just been craving some greasy burgers recently. Jumping immediately to health issues is a bit much IMO