6 ms·

Jeff Bezos Wants Ideas for Philanthropy, So He Asked Twitter

40 points by hvo 9y ago

afinlayson 9y ago
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.
pdog 9y ago
Link to request for ideas: https://www.twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/875418348598603776 https://www.twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/875418348598603776
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
rukd 9y ago
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.
- arkadiyt 9y ago
  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
mattybrennan 9y ago
"let Amazon workers finally unionize." - @demsocialists https://twitter.com/DemSocialists/status/875511888049778688 https://twitter.com/DemSocialists/status/875511888049778688
- peterhadlaw 9y ago
  What does this have to do with "philanthropy"?
  - ahmeni 9y ago
    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.
    - ekianjo 9y ago
      I'd say countries with strong unions like France have seen the detrimental effects of such unions (ongoing strikes for no reason except asking for more holidays and higher waves even though the said professions are already well above the median in all metrics). At the same time, such strikes disrupt everyone's else business and comes as a net cost for society.
      - ahmeni 9y ago
        Median wage is meaningless against systems with long term stagnant wage growth against a rising cost of living. Strikes don't have an effect unless they disrupt something, that's why they work. If you see a minor inconvenience to your morning commute instead of a collective work for your rights as a worker then I'm not really sure where your priorities lie.
        ekianjo 9y ago
        It's not a minor inconvenience to your commute when you can't get a train or a bus at all to go to work, several times a month. It makes you need to purchase a car and all the trouble that goes with it.
    - adventured 9y ago
      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.
pera 9y ago
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 9y ago
  "People are starving in Somalia" "I think there's already a JIRA for that one."
  - pera 9y ago
    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 9y ago
      Kiva is kind of like that! Edit: not Python
      - pera 9y ago
        What is Kivy? the only reference I found is about some python framework
      - kzahel 9y ago
        I think you mean Kiva?
        9y ago
adventured 9y ago
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.
perseusprime11 9y ago
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 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    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?
  - spydum 9y ago
    Alexa?
- viraptor 9y ago
  > How is he planning to parse through millions of responses? https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome Seriously though, it's going to be thousands of responses, not millions. Get 2-3 people for a day and the ideas can be collated into themes, then reported on, easily.
- perseusprime11 9y ago
  Looks like my point is proved because he just announced Whole Foods acquisition. His tweet was a diversion to soften the blow from today's announcement.
Mz 9y ago
Instead of a homeless shelter, how about more actual affordable housing? So people can get out of the shelters and off the streets.
- fwefwwfe 9y ago
  I easily find affordable housing in and around Seattle via Zillow. What are you expecting exactly that's not already out there?
  - Mz 9y ago
    I am not in the Seattle area. From what I have read, there is a long standing and growing shortage of genuinely affordable housing nationwide. Though I am curious as to what you think of as "affordable" in Seattle. Care to provide some examples?
    - fwefwwfe 9y ago
      You can find plenty of examples on Zillow.com and craigslist. What would you consider affordable with a 15$/hour minimum wage?
- orionblastar 9y ago
  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?
  - Mz 9y ago
    I am not pro basic income. https://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/p/ir2.html https://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/p/ir2.html
douche 9y ago
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.
- rubidium 9y ago
  Having a PMI means you're living beyond your means already.
  - douche 9y ago
    There's virtually no way for a 20-something to amass a 20% down-payment in a reasonable area, without postponing home ownership into the mid-30s.
  - zaroth 9y ago
    Instead of downvoting, I will just say, there are absolutely situations where a down payment of less than 20% is perfectly financially reasonable. Interest rates are extremely low.
  - exclusiv 9y ago
    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.
treelovinhippie 9y ago
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.
- viraptor 9y ago
  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.
  - SolarNet 9y ago
    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.
- tim333 9y ago
  Things like trying to wipe out malaria seem quite sensible. If instead you gave the few billion to people as $1 each it would be hard to achieve the same effect.
jessaustin 9y ago
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.
meric 9y ago
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.
AlexandrB 9y ago
I believe that traditionally this concept of funding things in the public's interest is called taxes + democracy.
- nebabyte 9y ago
  Eh, not big on traditionalism.
lostmsu 9y ago
Fusion.
mc32 9y ago
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 9y ago
  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.
pasbesoin 9y ago
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.

40 points by hvo 9y ago

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.

pdog 9y ago

Link to request for ideas: https://www.twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/875418348598603776 https://www.twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/875418348598603776

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

rukd 9y ago

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.

arkadiyt 9y ago
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

mattybrennan 9y ago

"let Amazon workers finally unionize." - @demsocialists https://twitter.com/DemSocialists/status/875511888049778688 https://twitter.com/DemSocialists/status/875511888049778688

peterhadlaw 9y ago
What does this have to do with "philanthropy"?
- ahmeni 9y ago
  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.
  - ekianjo 9y ago
    I'd say countries with strong unions like France have seen the detrimental effects of such unions (ongoing strikes for no reason except asking for more holidays and higher waves even though the said professions are already well above the median in all metrics). At the same time, such strikes disrupt everyone's else business and comes as a net cost for society.
    - ahmeni 9y ago
      Median wage is meaningless against systems with long term stagnant wage growth against a rising cost of living. Strikes don't have an effect unless they disrupt something, that's why they work. If you see a minor inconvenience to your morning commute instead of a collective work for your rights as a worker then I'm not really sure where your priorities lie.
      - ekianjo 9y ago
        It's not a minor inconvenience to your commute when you can't get a train or a bus at all to go to work, several times a month. It makes you need to purchase a car and all the trouble that goes with it.
  - adventured 9y ago
    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.

pera 9y ago

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 9y ago
"People are starving in Somalia" "I think there's already a JIRA for that one."
- pera 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    Kiva is kind of like that! Edit: not Python
    - pera 9y ago
      What is Kivy? the only reference I found is about some python framework
    - kzahel 9y ago
      I think you mean Kiva?
      - 9y ago

adventured 9y ago

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.

perseusprime11 9y ago

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 9y ago
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 9y ago
  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?
- spydum 9y ago
  Alexa?
viraptor 9y ago
> How is he planning to parse through millions of responses? https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome Seriously though, it's going to be thousands of responses, not millions. Get 2-3 people for a day and the ideas can be collated into themes, then reported on, easily.
perseusprime11 9y ago
Looks like my point is proved because he just announced Whole Foods acquisition. His tweet was a diversion to soften the blow from today's announcement.

Mz 9y ago

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

fwefwwfe 9y ago
I easily find affordable housing in and around Seattle via Zillow. What are you expecting exactly that's not already out there?
- Mz 9y ago
  I am not in the Seattle area. From what I have read, there is a long standing and growing shortage of genuinely affordable housing nationwide. Though I am curious as to what you think of as "affordable" in Seattle. Care to provide some examples?
  - fwefwwfe 9y ago
    You can find plenty of examples on Zillow.com and craigslist. What would you consider affordable with a 15$/hour minimum wage?
orionblastar 9y ago
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?
- Mz 9y ago
  I am not pro basic income. https://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/p/ir2.html https://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/p/ir2.html

douche 9y ago

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.

rubidium 9y ago
Having a PMI means you're living beyond your means already.
- douche 9y ago
  There's virtually no way for a 20-something to amass a 20% down-payment in a reasonable area, without postponing home ownership into the mid-30s.
- zaroth 9y ago
  Instead of downvoting, I will just say, there are absolutely situations where a down payment of less than 20% is perfectly financially reasonable. Interest rates are extremely low.
- exclusiv 9y ago
  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.

treelovinhippie 9y ago

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.

viraptor 9y ago
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.
- SolarNet 9y ago
  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.
tim333 9y ago
Things like trying to wipe out malaria seem quite sensible. If instead you gave the few billion to people as $1 each it would be hard to achieve the same effect.

jessaustin 9y ago

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.

meric 9y ago

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.

AlexandrB 9y ago

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

nebabyte 9y ago
Eh, not big on traditionalism.

lostmsu 9y ago

Fusion.

mc32 9y ago

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 9y ago
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.

pasbesoin 9y ago

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.