
Jeff Bezos Wants Ideas for Philanthropy, So He Asked Twitter - hvo
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/technology/jeff-bezos-amazon-twitter-charity.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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mattybrennan
"let Amazon workers finally unionize." \- @demsocialists

[https://twitter.com/DemSocialists/status/875511888049778688](https://twitter.com/DemSocialists/status/875511888049778688)

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peterhadlaw
What does this have to do with "philanthropy"?

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ahmeni
It's a good cause that would the increase of welfare his workers. It would
additionally empower others to unionize and improve their quality of life as
well.

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adventured
That presumes that Amazon can't substantially automate their labor away, which
is exactly what they'll aggressively do if you raise said cost of labor a lot.

The actual end result will be far greater tax payer cost for fully subsidizing
people that no longer have any employment, versus partial subsidization.

There isn't an advanced economy in all of Europe for example that doesn't use
heavy government (aka the top 50% of income earners) subsidization for the
benefit of the bottom 50% of earners. The healthcare systems in Britain and
France? The bottom 50% of employed persons are not primarily paying for those
very expensive benefits, they're receiving large government subsidies that
help offset their terrible pay, in the form of all sorts of welfare benefits.
Britain for example has such a low median wage, it barely qualifies them as
the 50th poorest US state, how do you think their bottom 50% of workers get by
if not through huge subsidies via the government to offset that terrible pay?
For some reason when companies in the US do the same exact thing, it's evil.

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zaroth
I think the base economic theory is that companies will pay for labor exactly
what that labor is worth to them. Analogous to the concepts of full-time and
part-time employment, is the concept of full-coverage pay or partial coverage
where the government picks up the rest.

The problem I have with the system is that everyone who is actually paying
receives the least benefits. It's just wealth redistribution. But inevitably
it also disincentives work the more the subsides increase in value, and the
sharper the drop-off as additional work is performed.

So how do you structure a system which encourages work? The obvious solution
is that benefits should _increase_ as tax payments increase. The makes working
super-incentivized, and provides a massive boost to productivity.

Aside from technology improvements, which the economists tell us aren't really
providing bang for the buck anymore, increasing the size of the workforce
increases GDP growth.

~~~
cakedoggie
> I think the base economic theory is that companies will pay for labor
> exactly what that labor is worth to them.

I imagine they would pay less, rather than just break even.

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pera
Because ideas are free, here is one: as Bezos, I would like to know what
things I could do to improve the world, both with my time or with my money; I
would like some kind of social platform where I could learn about issues,
propose solutions, and make them happen. In other words, a massive issue-
tracker for the outside world.

~~~
Waterluvian
"People are starving in Somalia"

"I think there's already a JIRA for that one."

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pera
Oh I hope that with some good moderation it could get much better than that...

"People are starving in Somalia" is as useful as "people around the world are
suffering", or (like in many software projects): "this program is too slow".

But if you can narrow the scope, like, "There is a neighborhood in Baidoa,
Somalia, that have no access to fresh water since the beginning of June
because a pump is broken" then we could think of possible ways to solve that.
And if you also include information about organizations in that area that
could help, then we are much closer to a real solution.

~~~
Waterluvian
Kiva is kind of like that!

Edit: not Python

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kzahel
I think you mean Kiva?

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Waterluvian
Yes my bad.

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perseusprime11
Feels gimmicky. How is he planning to parse through millions of responses?
Instead talk to leading non profits and get their advice or perhaps just help
fund them instead of creating a new one. World does not need a new charity
organization. Just help the ones that are finding it hard to raise money.

If I were Bezos, I would fund Elon Musk so Elon can solve as many problems as
possible without worrying about investors.

~~~
Mz
_A little more than five hours after his request, there were more than 3,600
such replies_

It seems to be thousands, not millions, and I am sure he has a secretary or --
the new PC term -- administrative assistant.

~~~
perseusprime11
They'll do a word cloud and then do what? Is he is really going to act on
these ideas without looking at real data on poverty, education, climate
change, etc?

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pdog
Link to request for ideas:
[https://www.twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/875418348598603776](https://www.twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/875418348598603776)

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meric
Philanthropy has a net benefit to the world if it can re-allocate labor,
capital allocated to unproductive activities to activities which are perceived
to improve the human experience.

If the philanthropy is spent on re-allocating labor, capital allocated to
existing productive activities (e.g. rice farming, bridge maintenance), to
activities which are perceived to improve the human experience, there's a big
chance it would cause harm to society instead.

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douche
Give me 10k, and I'll refinance my mortgage, to remove the PMI I'm currently
paying, and then spend an additional $150 per month on Amazon.

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rubidium
Having a PMI means you're living beyond your means already.

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exclusiv
Not necessarily. You don't have enough information to make that claim.

If you're smart and have assets (not living on the edge), then you put as
little down as possible because your return will be higher than the PMI or
general debt service.

As an example: I bought an investment property about 2 years ago with 10% down
and was able to do it because I took a HELOC with a higher rate.

I could have put way more down but my goal was cash on cash return. The higher
rate for the HELOC is kind of like having PMI. The rate can adjust upwards
too.

The property does 80K/yr and cash flows. After I bought it I used cash to do
some upgrades. I refinanced a year later (low fixed mortgage, no more HELOC)
and they did a new appraisal at that time. It has ~22% equity now.

I just put an offer out to buy a second property. 10% down again and I'll put
cash in to get it ready to rent.

I was approved for the first property as a second home actually so I can
afford it with no income. Now that it has income, I got approved for another
home.

Point is - leverage is a great idea if you know what you're doing. Don't fear
the PMI; there's plenty of ways to beat it. Example: you can do state muni
bond funds with the preserved cash - it's tax free income if you buy funds
from your state and it's easy to get out if you need the cash back for
anything.

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mc32
Establish an Endowment whose goal would be to re-train people who are looking
to get trained with in-demand skills to off-set the dislocation of labor due
to the disruption our workforce will experience due to automation. Teach old
dogs new skills/vocations.

~~~
adharmad
This! With the reduction in workforce caused by increased automation or
robots, there is going to be a large number of people who will be out of work.
If there is a way of training them with newer skills and making them
productive, that would alleviate (to some extent) the social disruption.

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pasbesoin
Use your power to help get universal health care insurance/coverage.

Hell, all the contract, part time, whatever workers at your warehouses sure
could use it.

Right here, right now, I'm not even talking about wage levels and all the
rest.

Just help ensure that people, regardless of their standing in life, can stay
basically healthy. In the U.S.

Bigger goal: Around the world.

THAT would be a worthwhile goal, and legacy.

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AlexandrB
I believe that traditionally this concept of funding things in the public's
interest is called taxes + democracy.

~~~
nebabyte
Eh, not big on traditionalism.

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treelovinhippie
Give money to people. Let them decide. Hell, have a giant crowdfunding voting
platform. Philanthro-capitalism is the absolute worst way to distribute
resources. One unfathomably wealthy person is not positioned in any way to
rationally or appropriately distribute resources for humanitarian concerns.

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viraptor
Why do you think that? [http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-
Do](http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do) seems to be doing just that and
has pretty good results.

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SolarNet
After destroying the Seattle education system first. Then after realizing
issues are more complicated than he originally imagined (and local issues
reflecting poorly on him) going to foreign countries to experiment with
dispersing his tax breaks.

Not exactly a stunning endorsement. Basically the least bad example.

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rukd
They say the best ideas can come from anyone and anywhere, I guess why not
Twitter? Probably not most of our first choice but hey, theoretically
something good could come up.

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arkadiyt
It's a great medium - Brian Chesky did the same thing for Airbnb ideas and got
over 2200 replies:
[https://twitter.com/bchesky/status/813219932087390208](https://twitter.com/bchesky/status/813219932087390208)

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Mz
Instead of a homeless shelter, how about more actual affordable housing? So
people can get out of the shelters and off the streets.

~~~
orionblastar
How does that differ from HUD?

In North St Louis they tore down the projects that were hud and forced
families to move to North St Louis county aka Spanish Lake and Ferguson etc
and built HUD apartments there.

Maybe what you want is basic income to live on and afford housing and food,
etc?

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Mz
I am not pro basic income.

[https://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/p/ir2.html](https://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/p/ir2.html)

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adventured
Bezos is being very logical as usual. He's about to be pinned with the title
of world's richest person (assuming the stock market isn't about to deflate of
course), and all the negative press that goes with it. Such as the optics of
world's richest person vs pay & work conditions of Amazon's poorest workers,
the headlines will never end unless he starts pouring a billion per year into
philanthropy.

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lostmsu
Fusion.

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afinlayson
Too many people think about themselves, and not about the bigger picture.
There's a lot of people saying "Give me $5000" Or "Why don't you teach me to
be rich?!"

I truly hope he chooses something to change the world for the better.

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jessaustin
He could do worse than just giving all his money to Bill Gates. Actually, he
already has done much worse, by purchasing a major newspaper that formerly
occasionally published articles written in the public interest, only to turn
it into the official press organ of the "intelligence" TLAs. Viewed in a
certain light, of course, that wasn't so much philanthropy as CODB.

