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The problem is in how undemocratic this kind of philanthropy is. Most everyone can agree that homelessness needs to be addressed. But why does one man get to de
by kiliantics 8y ago
The problem is in how undemocratic this kind of philanthropy is. Most everyone can agree that homelessness needs to be addressed. But why does one man get to decide how that is done? We as a society should be using our collective resources to help give everyone a good chance, we shouldn't have to rely on the benevolence of certain massively powerful individuals for any good to be done for those in need. It shouldn't be possible for only one person to dictate the terms for which that aid is dispensed either, which could just be another way of helping themselves.
The way this should work is that Bezos should be taxed far more than he currently is and a good government run by and for the people should be redistributing that wealth created by Bezos (but mostly created by all the workers at Amazon, and through the use of society's existing infrastructure) to improve things for everyone.
There is a good discussion of the issues with such kinds of billionaire philanthropy in this podcast [1] and its sequel, where they focus on how Bill Gates has built an image of doing good for the world's most needy, while also using that same power to threaten democracies and worker's rights and build more power for himself.
[1] https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/episode-45-the-not-so-benevolent-billionaire-bill-gates-and-western-media https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/episode-45-the-not-so...