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There will be a lot of cynicism on this post from the HN crowd, but these are unbelievably good recipients. I have interacted with Jose Andres many times, and g
by catillac 5y ago
There will be a lot of cynicism on this post from the HN crowd, but these are unbelievably good recipients. I have interacted with Jose Andres many times, and go to his DC restaurants when I visit, and he is truly a wonderful soul who spends all his effort helping others. I don’t know much about Van Jones beyond what I see on TV, but if he’s of the same character as Jose Andres, that is stellar and they will both do wonderful things for our world with that money.
- cs702 5y agoI've interacted with José Andrés in the past too, and can attest that he's an amazing human being. He is the kind of person who will try his hardest to use every single one of those dollars to help other people who are desperately in need of that help. It's really great to see Bezos doing this.
- consumer451 5y agoAnother reason to temporarily suspend cynicism is that this is a very interesting method of philanthropy. Allowing the recipients to chose their own destinations for the money could lead to a more diverse and disruptive set of expenditures. I am interested to see this award program's effects in 10-20 years. Is this an annual event? I never saw a definitive answer on that.
- skeeter2020 5y ago>> I am interested to see this award program's effects in 10-20 years One of the challenges of this "pay it forward on steroids" approach is that it will likely be hard to attribute measurable changes to the original investments. It does seem notable that Bezos has captured a huge set of resources, then paid it out to others for redistribution under their policies and procedures; he's essentially acting like a government which raises some concerns.
- RIMR 5y agoHe has more capital than entire nation states. It's absurd that we celebrate this kind of undemocratic power in America.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- sgpl 5y agoI mean I'd say Mackenzie Scott (fka: Mackenzie Bezos) is someone who should be lauded more here. Not that it's a competition or that one takes away from the other but she's doing more to chip away at the status quo of philanthropic giving vs others. In 2020, she gave away nearly $6 billion to 500 organizations. And has distributed $2.74 billion so far this year to about 286 orgs. From what I've read, these grants/donations don't come with any strings attached unlike grants from a lot of big foundations.
- JulianRaphael 5y agoAgreed! Unfortunately, quite a bit of the money that she donates to some of these organizations goes into the pockets of extremely well-paid executives. That what's always bothered me about giving to charity orgs more widely. Luckily, there are websites that allow you to check how much charity organizations are actually spending on their programs vs. their expenses... I do think that giving directly to individuals who will make sure that all of the money is spent wisely is an interesting alternative approach.
- tomComb 5y agoJ. K. Rowling too, though not on quite the same scale: she would be a self-made billionaire, but she's given away enough that I don't think she's a billionaire anymore. To me, she seems like a really admirable public figure in general.
- masterphilo 5y agoPersonally, I'm too confused to be even cynical about it. I don't know anything about Van Jones other than what I see on TV, but that by itself cannot explain why Bezos felt he deserved the "award".
- chroem- 5y agoPreviously he's been known for being openly communist (i.e. not just a regular socialist). As an aside, I still find it odd how we've rightfully shunned other totalitarian and mass murdering political ideologies, but we've completely whitewashed communism. I couldn't imagine another newscaster openly identifying as a nazi.
- edmundsauto 5y agoThe difference is that communism is an economic idea, which was used by regimes that did brutal things. Whereas the Nazi ideology drove the violence. In one case, it was correlated. In another, causative.
- chroem- 5y agoA core tenet of communist ideology is violent overthrow of democratic governments to implement a "dictatorship of the proletariat". Both are rooted in violence.
- edmundsauto 5y agoAren't democracy and communism orthogonal? Admittedly, I'm not a scholar, but it seems to me that democracy is mostly concerned w/ how leaders are chosen. Whereas communism is about how resources are distributed. It sounds possible to have a democratically elected government that sets a communist economic policy.
- chroem- 5y agoThat's not true, because the goal is to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat through violent revolution. Democracies are incompatible with dictatorship and must be overthrown in order to purge the other social classes. This is why every instance of communism has led to human rights abuses and/or mass murder: totalitarianism is part of the ideology.
- ianai 5y agoAgree. They seem like good choices. Maybe he’s making a pivot now that he’s retired from Amazon? I will caution people to not read too little or too much into this. Personally I live by the maxim of “I don’t need a reason to do something nice, but I do need a reason to do something mean.” So I suggest we all wait and see what else he does before further analysis.
- chasd00 5y agoprobably attempting to buy his way into heaven now that his fortune has been won. The same thing Gates is doing.
- cratermoon 5y agoeveryone: look at the billionaire who bought himself a dick-shaped rocket ride to space Jeffy: hey everybody, I gave away the change I found in the cushions of my couch!
- courtf 5y agoThey are great choices, it's a generous and interesting form of charity. The focus on civility is a strange demand from the guy who has his workers peeing in bottles, but ok, I guess you need to stand for something at some point in the face of criticism. Will this counterbalance the negative responses of the last few days? Probably not, the criticisms about the power wealthy individuals wield in society aren't affected, but it's a well timed gesture of good faith and the recipients are well chosen.
- cassac 5y agoIt deserves cynicism. If he wasn’t a jerk he’d just pay his employees more and maybe pay some taxes. When everyone is fair upfront they don’t need to give us free turkeys on thanksgiving we can buy our own.
- havetocharge 5y agoHis employees are free to seek a better paid employment if a jerk they work for underpays them. What's up with this nonstop handout mindset lately?
- mtgx 5y agoMonopolies and corporate consolidations tend to limit one's job opportunities.
- 015a 5y agoSo its alright for rich CNN contributors to get handouts from Bezos, but unacceptable for average Americans?
- Hokusai 5y ago> His employees are free to seek a better paid employment if a jerk they work for underpays them. So, people have options to stop being poor, people have options to not have to pee in a bottle at work, but they chose to do it, why? Poverty removes many options, lack of good education removes many options, abusive corporations keep options far away. The system is the problem, people is just living in a system manipulated for the benefit of others. It's not a handout, it's asking for growth to be shared fairly. It's about taking care of our fellow humans. It's about creating a society that works for everyone and not just the few.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- colordrops 5y agoThese guys are stooges of the elite for maintaining narrative control. They are part of the same media bloc as the Washington Post, which Bezos owns - that bloc being neoliberal establishment. To call them "unbelievably good recipients" is orwell speak.
- timmytokyo 5y agoI can maybe see this argument being made against Van Jones. But Jose Andres?