Hopefully it does better than Mark Zuckerberg’s 100 million dollar gift to Newark schools. Oh brother!
Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
181–190 of 560 posts
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#182This isn’t popular, but I’d challenge anyone who thinks homelessness in Seattle isn’t primarily an addiction and mental illness problem to go spend a few afternoons in areas with significant homeless populations (3rd Ave in Pioneer Square is a great place, if you need a suggestion). It’s not that affordable housing isn’t a problem in Seattle. I know people who couldn’t live on their own in Seattle anymore due to rent…
Lived in California for close to two years and I agree. The streets may not be the best sample though. There are homeless people who work and live in their cars. Getting government and NIMBYISM out of housing policy will lead to affordable housing and is paramount to fixing this. Opportunity Zone Investments should also help some.
>Getting government and NIMBYISM out of housing policy will lead to affordable housing and is paramount to fixing this.
The trick is getting government and nimbyism out of housing policy while getting them into drug and mental illness treatment at the same time. These days it doesn't seem like there's a political party that can handle that kind of nuance. It feels like it's either expand government on all fronts or retreat on all fronts and that's not what's needed here.
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
The best way for companies to care for their down and out compatriots is to pay their workers their due instead of profiting handsomely from underpaying them.
This is something I have legitimately wondered for a while now, and maybe someone on here with an economics background has some links to share: Which is more economically efficient: 1. Pay workers above-market wages 2. Pay workers market wages, but use taxes and some sort of welfare to bring the workers effective income up to where it would be had you paid them above-market wages. Presumably the taxes used to fund Op…
the problem is that the "market wages" generate both humanitarian disasters of poverty and also demand gaps wherein people can't afford to buy goods, which puts a drag on the economy.
#2 is an issue because government transfers nearly always have terms attached. people get food stamps for food, housing assistance for housing, etc. so demand gaps can still occur because people still don't have the "right" kind of money. plus, it's less efficient because the government has to be involved.
i'm in favor of a wealth tax, however. implementation issues aside, it's the most realistic chance we have of making businesses pay up.
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#184I dont't care if this is a PR stint to ward of recent criticism Bezos is getting from Bernie et al but if this fund goes and actually help and make a real life impact on the lives of homeless people, then I am fine and I will hold back my criticism of Amazon. I mean clearly I have not done enough to mitigate homelessness in this country who am I to question others motives trying to solve the same problem?
Looks like this was cheaper than upping the salaries of warehouse workers to get them off food stamps and provide healthcare. For Bezos this is just another calculation, nothing more.
That’s very possible. Altho this is from his own money and not the corp. Though I agree he should try and follow the example of CostCo and maybe outdo them and set an even better example.
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Should Bezos pay part-time workers full-time wages so they don't have to use government programs?
Bezos decided to hire them part time, so the question is kind of ludicrous.
How is it ludicrous? They are counting part-time workers among the "benefits" total which is disingenuous and not apples to apples at all.
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#186Homelessness in the USA in most places is an emotional or mental problem, but in some parts of the country, it's actually an affordability / NIMBYism / price control problem. For example, in the San Francisco Bay Area, there is a broad swath of folks who work full time (or more!) who have three choices: 1) Live with roommates, often exceeding the legal limits on the dwelling on the number of occupants, or live in ill…
I'm a clueless foreigner [0], and HN is my only window into the Bay Area (and, in a more general sense, into America), so I appreciate your writeup. On HN my impression that absolutely everybody agrees that SF and the cities near it should just build more and higher. It appears to solve all the problems (insane rent, extreme commutes, homelessness, poo), so why is it politically untenable? Who exactly is pro insane rent, extreme commutes, homelessness and poo?
I mean, the home owners can't be the voting majority right?
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
My 2 cents is that Amazon isn't a major cause. There's a few things going on(1): - exploding drug addiction and related mental health issues - Seattle does a remarkably crappy job of assigning the low income housing we build and/or contract for. Too many people get it who shouldn't qualify. Too many non-profits cherry pick their clients. Etc, etc. - It's super hard to get coherent services out of the system. Which ma…
> - exploding drug addiction and related mental health issues I think cause and effect are backwards here. Low wages and high housing prices seem like they'd naturally lead to homelessness and rates of drug addiction and mental illness among the homeless, although very high compared to the general population, are nowhere near as high as people would like to think.
We are talking about sentient people. Wages and housing prices may be an excuse, but they don't shove drugs down people's throats.
Mental illness - may be. But one needs to know if it's the cause, or simply an exposing factor.
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bezos decided to hire them part time, so the question is kind of ludicrous.
How is it ludicrous? They are counting part-time workers among the "benefits" total which is disingenuous and not apples to apples at all.
I think the point is he could just offer full-time jobs instead.
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#189This isn’t popular, but I’d challenge anyone who thinks homelessness in Seattle isn’t primarily an addiction and mental illness problem to go spend a few afternoons in areas with significant homeless populations (3rd Ave in Pioneer Square is a great place, if you need a suggestion). It’s not that affordable housing isn’t a problem in Seattle. I know people who couldn’t live on their own in Seattle anymore due to rent…
Lived in California for close to two years and I agree. The streets may not be the best sample though. There are homeless people who work and live in their cars. Getting government and NIMBYISM out of housing policy will lead to affordable housing and is paramount to fixing this. Opportunity Zone Investments should also help some.
Seattle's homeless camping problem has gotten really out of hand in the last 2 years.
I moved away about a year and a half ago, when homeless tents were pretty common. When I visited recently, it was stunning how much worse it is. Almost every green space in the city (except for popular parks) is filled with tents. It's really crazy.
Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
My 2 cents is that Amazon isn't a major cause. There's a few things going on(1): - exploding drug addiction and related mental health issues - Seattle does a remarkably crappy job of assigning the low income housing we build and/or contract for. Too many people get it who shouldn't qualify. Too many non-profits cherry pick their clients. Etc, etc. - It's super hard to get coherent services out of the system. Which ma…
> - exploding drug addiction and related mental health issues I think cause and effect are backwards here. Low wages and high housing prices seem like they'd naturally lead to homelessness and rates of drug addiction and mental illness among the homeless, although very high compared to the general population, are nowhere near as high as people would like to think.
rates of drug addiction and mental illness among the homeless, although very high compared to the general population, are nowhere near as high as people would like to think.
Probably because nobody notices the clean, sane person living out of their car. We probably need better terminology, like functional vs. dysfunctional homeless, or something.