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> What the legion critics of Bezos and Blue Origin miss is that the company legitimately has the goal of ultimately saving planet Earth Does it? I feel like we

> What the legion critics of Bezos and Blue Origin miss is that the company legitimately has the goal of ultimately saving planet Earth Does it? I feel like we've seen tons of companies advertise lofty humanist goals, only to back away from them and declare "Actually we're a business and we serve our customers. It's not our job to save the world."

bombcar 5y ago
Find a company that when asked if their goal is “saving planet earth” they respond “no” - very few! Maybe Sherwin Williams with their slogan? Even Exxon Mobile will say the same. You have to look at the details and what they actually do.
eplanit 5y ago
They're confusing Bezos with Musk. Musk is revolutionizing the adoption of solar energy and non-petroleum vehicles, and even has a goal of liberating humanity from Earth itself. Lofty, and becoming so real. Not to mention Spacex/starlink and the implications for a truly global internet, _serious_ space travel, ... Name one thing Bezos is doing that isn't about himself. I liked his "thank you" to Amazon customers (I for sure helped get him into space) -- but it was simultaneously very off-putting, and I'm not surprised he's completely blind to that reaction. Kudos to him for his success, which I respect, but I find nothing about him to admire.
- zippergz 5y ago
  I truly don't know how anyone can believe a word Elon Musk says at this point. I'm not saying I trust Bezos either, but Elon has burned any shred of credibility he ever had.
  - iab 5y ago
    I don’t think that’s true, haven’t you seen all the dogecoin billionaires running around?
  - fallingknife 5y ago
    The government and private industry find him very credible when purchasing launch services. Wall St and private investors find him very credible when raising capital. And those people are far more credible than you, an anonymous commenter on HN.
    - anotherman554 5y ago
      They don't necessarily find the things Musk says on Twitter credible. It's like that famous rich guy who said the media should stop taking a different famous rich guy "literally."
      - fallingknife 5y ago
        OK, yeah, but those are tweets. He uses social media like most people do, which, like most conversational speech, is not meant to be taken literally. His real business isn't done over Twitter.
    - rantwasp 5y ago
      you’re missing the point of GP. Musk has over promised and under delivered for a long time. Wall St/investors don’t believe Musk. They believe in Tesla and/or SpaceX. Musk is neither of those. He may be the big boss, but thousands of people work to make those things a reality. Thousands.
  - s5300 5y ago
    You realize he has lead a company to produce multiple models of the outright safest street legal scalable production automobiles ever produced across the board, right?
- WalterBright 5y ago
  > Name one thing Bezos is doing that isn't about himself. He has saved me an enormous amount of time and gas because I don't go to the mall anymore. I.e. Bezos makes money for himself by providing a service people find worth paying for.
api 5y ago
Asking a corporation to fix social problems is like asking the DMV to operate the space program or your local school district to build roads. Corporations are simply not "for" that. They are for production and service operation. They are not the right kind of entity, don't have the right structure, and don't have the right incentives. Luckily corporations are not the only kind of human organization. We also have governments of various kinds and scales, international coalitions, non-profits, churches, universities, etc. There is this weird idea that corporations are the answer to everything.
pyrale 5y ago
You must be mistaken. That's legitimately his goal. People missing that also usually miss the following: * What the legion critics of Zuck and Facebook miss is that the company legitimately has the goal of connecting people * What the legion critics of Page and Google miss is that the company legitimately has the goal of doing no evil

bombcar 5y ago

Find a company that when asked if their goal is “saving planet earth” they respond “no” - very few! Maybe Sherwin Williams with their slogan? Even Exxon Mobile will say the same. You have to look at the details and what they actually do.

eplanit 5y ago

They're confusing Bezos with Musk. Musk is revolutionizing the adoption of solar energy and non-petroleum vehicles, and even has a goal of liberating humanity from Earth itself. Lofty, and becoming so real. Not to mention Spacex/starlink and the implications for a truly global internet, _serious_ space travel, ... Name one thing Bezos is doing that isn't about himself. I liked his "thank you" to Amazon customers (I for sure helped get him into space) -- but it was simultaneously very off-putting, and I'm not surprised he's completely blind to that reaction. Kudos to him for his success, which I respect, but I find nothing about him to admire.

zippergz 5y ago
I truly don't know how anyone can believe a word Elon Musk says at this point. I'm not saying I trust Bezos either, but Elon has burned any shred of credibility he ever had.
- iab 5y ago
  I don’t think that’s true, haven’t you seen all the dogecoin billionaires running around?
- fallingknife 5y ago
  The government and private industry find him very credible when purchasing launch services. Wall St and private investors find him very credible when raising capital. And those people are far more credible than you, an anonymous commenter on HN.
  - anotherman554 5y ago
    They don't necessarily find the things Musk says on Twitter credible. It's like that famous rich guy who said the media should stop taking a different famous rich guy "literally."
    - fallingknife 5y ago
      OK, yeah, but those are tweets. He uses social media like most people do, which, like most conversational speech, is not meant to be taken literally. His real business isn't done over Twitter.
  - rantwasp 5y ago
    you’re missing the point of GP. Musk has over promised and under delivered for a long time. Wall St/investors don’t believe Musk. They believe in Tesla and/or SpaceX. Musk is neither of those. He may be the big boss, but thousands of people work to make those things a reality. Thousands.
- s5300 5y ago
  You realize he has lead a company to produce multiple models of the outright safest street legal scalable production automobiles ever produced across the board, right?
WalterBright 5y ago
> Name one thing Bezos is doing that isn't about himself. He has saved me an enormous amount of time and gas because I don't go to the mall anymore. I.e. Bezos makes money for himself by providing a service people find worth paying for.

api 5y ago

Asking a corporation to fix social problems is like asking the DMV to operate the space program or your local school district to build roads. Corporations are simply not "for" that. They are for production and service operation. They are not the right kind of entity, don't have the right structure, and don't have the right incentives. Luckily corporations are not the only kind of human organization. We also have governments of various kinds and scales, international coalitions, non-profits, churches, universities, etc. There is this weird idea that corporations are the answer to everything.

pyrale 5y ago

You must be mistaken. That's legitimately his goal. People missing that also usually miss the following: * What the legion critics of Zuck and Facebook miss is that the company legitimately has the goal of connecting people * What the legion critics of Page and Google miss is that the company legitimately has the goal of doing no evil