
Bezos Says He’ll Spend ‘Amazon Lottery Winnings’ on Space Travel - dsr12
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-12/bezos-says-he-ll-spend-amazon-lottery-winnings-on-space-travel
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hownottowrite
The article's profile image of Bezos eating an iguana should be an article all
by itself.

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BrazeBeefNoodle
Yeah that was gross. I used to have pet iguanas, so that pic was just about as
disturbing as seeing that platter with a dog or cat on it.

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exclusiv
I don't find it to be a big deal. Everyone in my group tried iguana in Curacao
where it's illegal to hunt them. They're absolutely everywhere but you can eat
the ones that are farm raised so they show up on the menu at many places.

But yeah if you have a pet iguana your perception will be vastly different. If
you come from an island full of them where it's normal to eat them then you
wouldn't think twice about it. If you're somewhere in the middle of that
spectrum you'll either be the curious type, the snakes/lizards are gross/not
for food type, or be the non-adventurous type.

I wouldn't make a habit of eating iguana or horse or other things many would
consider oddities but if I'm visiting a place where it's part of their culture
I'll see what it's about.

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exclusiv
I wrote my reply before I looked at the photo and while I have a different
perspective than you, I agree that the photo is gross. It's one thing to eat
an iguana but another to present it that way and take a photo eating it
creepily haha.

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cmdli
Could a space enthusiast explain the utilitarian point of space travel to me?
Space is cool, but it seems like most of the posited uses for space are either
extremely speculative (asteroid mining) or a "solution" to a doomsday scenario
(a small colony surviving if humans can't survive on Earth).

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keyme
Let me ask you this: when you think about our future in 100-200 years, what do
you see?

Do you really see us sitting around here and just being? Just stagnating?
Waiting for the real-estate and resources to finally run out?

If you don't, or hope that it's not what all of this amounts to, the only
question remaining should be "if not now, then when?".

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cryptoz
> James Watson, who co-discovered the structure of DNA, advised Bezos to spend
> just a quarter of his fortune on space exploration, so he can take care of
> this planet’s needs. “

This is an odd opinion to have here. I thought Bezos was clear that Blue
Origin is all about protecting the Earth in the first place! The stated goal
of Blue Origin is to stop all mining and manufacturing on Earth, to move it
off-world, and leave Earth a peaceful place to live and generally hang out.

The entire purpose of Blue Origin is to stop humanity from resource-
extracting-and-polluting Earth's oceans, land and water. I cannot envision a
way Bezos would be better suited to personally spend his money on solving
Earth problems than the way he has just posited.

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imglorp
> stop humanity from resource-extracting-and-polluting Earth's oceans, land
> and water

I'm not sure I see the connection. I'd argue most of the damage we're doing to
the earth is not industrial: overfishing the oceans, raising cattle, slash and
burn agriculture, extracting and burning hydrocarbons, transportation, waste
disposal. Moving industry off planet is fine but we still need to address
these things.

Now, if you want to move a bunch of humans off planet, that would be super.

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cryptoz
Perhaps I oversimplified. Bezos would also like to move millions of people
off-planet as well. Additionally, it's not just mining and manufacturing, but
nearly all of humanity's Earthly activities can be done in space. There is
some more details about his vision in this WaPo piece:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/jeff-
bezos-p...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/jeff-bezos-pulls-
back-the-curtain-on-his-plans-for-
space/2016/03/09/a0716c7e-e5f4-11e5-a6f3-21ccdbc5f74e_story.html?utm_term=.d391ad598df4)

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Mediterraneo10
> Bezos would also like to move millions of people off-planet as well.

In Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy, one of the points made is that even
with multiple space elevators, you could never move more people off the planet
than are being born on it at the same time. Consequently, space exploration is
not a cure for overpopulation. KSR researched this 25 years ago, has the math
on that changed?

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wrycoder
I would like to see him put a big chunk into a fusion research skunkworks.

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ty_a
Bezos is an investor in General Fusion:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Fusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Fusion)

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pw
Kinda sad to see when organization like the Against Malaria Foundation and
GiveDirectly could absorb hundreds of millions in additional funding. I know
long-term thinking, break-through technologies, blah, blah, blah, but spending
$3000 to save a life via mosquito nets or $500/year to raise someone out of
extreme seem like easy, immediate wins that should be prioritized.

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civilian
Yep. This has way higher priority than even most other charities too.
Sometimes I compare the policies of "homeless maintenance" in the US to what
it could be done in the third world. I would re-allocate funds in a second if
I was hegemon.

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blackbagboys
That's great that he gets to spend the massive amounts of wealth he's
accumulated through monopolistic business practices, ruthlessly exploiting his
labor force (or his "contractors" labor force) and avoiding taxes on his pet
hobby, but I'd prefer we just take the money and spend it on things people
actually need.

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jacknews
Yes, I was going to say, it's not a "lottery win" at all. All his employees
have contributed to the pot (their salaries are less than the company
profits+capital gains), and as the company owner, he's the automatic winner.

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PhasmaFelis
You'd think he could put some of that money towards not abusing his own
employees. [https://gizmodo.com/reminder-amazon-treats-its-employees-
lik...](https://gizmodo.com/reminder-amazon-treats-its-employees-like-
shit-1792642652)

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schrototo
How about he spend it on paying his workers a living wage?

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drharby
Because thats his perogative?

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PhasmaFelis
I don't understand why you think this is a good argument. There are plenty of
things people are _allowed_ to do that they really shouldn't.

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drharby
Its not a justification, it is a matter of fact that his decision making is
not dependent on the masses' value system outside the realm of law.

Thats what anti trust laws are for.

I perceive any such talk that he should spend his money a certain way as
propaganda.

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PhasmaFelis
So your argument is "anything you can legally get away with is morally
acceptable"?

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drharby
There is NO ARGUMENT.

An argument posits that there is a factual inconsistency that needs to be
clarified through dialogue.

What you are proposing is a debate.

I AM NOT DEBATING - I am stating the fact that in American society the people
have political vehicles to enforce cultural morality as codified through law.

And i continue this dialogue because it is important for people to recognize
that using morality as a metric is arbitrary when discussion such matters
necause at the end of the day morality varies from pers9n to person and
culture to culture

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PhasmaFelis
That's...not how debate works. You can't just declare that you're not debating
while continuing to debate, at least not when we're debating matters of
opinion like moral responsibilities.

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drharby
You are clearly filtering my messages. I have zero desire pursuing this
alleged dialogue.

All i am trying to communicate is that he can do what ever he wants.

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PhasmaFelis
> _I have zero desire pursuing this alleged dialogue._

And yet you keep doing it.

