Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#51

Post by civilian » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:44 PM UTC

maxxxxx wrote: post #43

woah wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the problem with the employees using public benefits? Genuinely curious.

This means that the public is subsidizing a company owned by the richest man in the world because he refuses to pay his employees a living wage. Doesn't this sound wrong?

Flip it around.

These people needed government support, and Bezos is giving them a job, so now they need less government support than they did before. Bezos is helping to give money to people who would have otherwise been totally on welfare.

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#52

Post by throwaway180915 » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

Alternate heading: “Bezos donates 1.2% of his net-worth to help homeless”

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#53

Post by java_script » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

burlesona wrote: post #15

I hope this works and is successful. Still I can’t help but be reminded of the saying that roughly goes “the people who are paid to solve a problem end up having a vested interest in the problem not being solved.” Specifically with regards to homelessness, the problem seems to be the critical shortage of housing for people in general, leading to a total crisis of affordable housing, rather than a specific problem of…

At some point you have to blame the homeless people themselves. I've been walking up to them searching for a hot-spot and found that nearly none of them are choosing to make money by being walking routers anymore.

Also interesting to find out that there aren't any vacant homes anymore.

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#54

Post by rectang » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

From A History of Richard the Third by Jacob Abbott (1901):

"This ceremony being concluded, a company of heralds came forward before the king, and proclaimed 'a largesse,' as it was called. The ceremony of a largesse consisted in throwing money among the crowd to be scrambled for. Three times the money was thrown out, on this occasion, among the guests in the hall. The amount that is charged on the royal account-book for the expense of this largesse is one hundred pounds."

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#55

Post by kevmo » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

"Philanthropy" is just another way that oligarchs take tax-free control of our society and shape it to their whims. A fine example of this is Bill Gates - with no educational training or experience, he used his fortune to push failing methods on millions on American kids.[1]

Bezos is a great creator of poverty. He is the wrong person to try and fix it. We need to just make these oligarchs pay taxes and living wages, full-stop.

[1] https://www.philanthropydaily.com/gates-philanthropy-failure...

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#56

Post by filoleg » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

etaty wrote: post #26

All hail to Bezos... Earlier this year, under pressure from Amazon and other large employers, Seattle’s City Council repealed an employee head tax designed to provide housing and services for the homeless. In a statement, Amazon called the vote “the right decision for the region’s economic prosperity. We are deeply committed to being part of the solution to end homelessness in Seattle and will continue to invest in l…

you might want to check up on the actual breakdown of that specific head tax bill, there is a bunch of fairly neutral and level-headed discussions of it on Seattle subreddits. Tldr, it was really bad, as it hurt a bunch of small to medium sized local businesses that everyone uses, but somehow no one thought of when crafting the bill, and they were among the ones spearheading the repeal.

The only thing that bill illustrated to me personally is how ineffective and ridiculously bad Seattle government officials are. Passed with a 9-0 vote, repealed extremely shortly after with 7-2.

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#57

Post by baron816 » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

etaty wrote: post #26

All hail to Bezos... Earlier this year, under pressure from Amazon and other large employers, Seattle’s City Council repealed an employee head tax designed to provide housing and services for the homeless. In a statement, Amazon called the vote “the right decision for the region’s economic prosperity. We are deeply committed to being part of the solution to end homelessness in Seattle and will continue to invest in l…

I’m not opposed to new taxes, but that was a really poorly designed tax.

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#58

Post by burlesona » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:46 PM UTC

skybrian wrote: post #22

kolanos wrote: post #10

Call me cynical, but shouldn't this $2B go towards compensating his employees well enough to not have to use government welfare programs? [0] [0]: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-takes-walmarts-spot-w...

Why not both?

I think the point is that if his business is making so much money to make him the worlds richest person and his company one of the top two in the world, you would HOPE that would trickle down into good jobs throughout his business such that people who work for him had no need of public assistance.

Alas.

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#59

Post by genericone » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:46 PM UTC

etaty wrote: post #26

All hail to Bezos... Earlier this year, under pressure from Amazon and other large employers, Seattle’s City Council repealed an employee head tax designed to provide housing and services for the homeless. In a statement, Amazon called the vote “the right decision for the region’s economic prosperity. We are deeply committed to being part of the solution to end homelessness in Seattle and will continue to invest in l…

One is a decree, the other is a choice.

Re: Amazon's Bezos Launches $2B Fund to Help the Homeless

#60

Post by pessimizer » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:46 PM UTC

karangoeluw wrote: post #2

I have always wondered which one is better: 1. Contribute early on little by little 2. Contribute nothing to very little for a while amassing huge fortunes (and compound interest magic), then donate big. Pretty much the same question as lump sum vs dollar cost averaging in investing. Have there been studies on this?

If you amass a huge fortune through paying your workers low wages, it would probably be best to avoid amassing that huge fortune, give your workers a larger share of your profits, and allow them to donate themselves. It helps you to avoid the temptation to cynically set up a tax-offsetting fund to avoid potential legislation that forces you to contribute to the communities where you are located.

Either way, it's good to figure out how to contribute back to a country who created your wealth, by allowing you to operate a business for two decades without being subject to the sales taxes that the long-shuttered businesses who previously employed your desperate applicants were required to pay.

So donate to politicians early so you don't have to pay taxes, donate to charity to avoid taxes later, buy a newspaper somewhere in between.