Jeff Bezos Wants Ideas for Philanthropy, So He Asked Twitter

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/technology/jeff-bezos-amazon-twitter-charity.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

by hvo • 9 years ago

40 62 9 years ago

nytimes.com

afinlayson• 9 years 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• 9 years ago

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

rukd• 9 years 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• 9 years 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

mattybrennan2• 9 years ago

"let Amazon workers finally unionize." - @demsocialists

https://twitter.com/DemSocialists/status/875511888049778688

peterhadlaw• 9 years ago

What does this have to do with "philanthropy"?

ahmeni2• 9 years 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.

patrickthebold• 9 years ago

Well, it's giving something... In any case, workers' wages have been stagnant, jobs have been lost to automation, wealth has been pooling up at the top. Things would probably be better off if Amazon's employees had had more of a share in the wealth that was created and he wasn't in such a position.

I don't really think Unions are the solution to this problem, but it is a real, and important, problem to solve.

mattybrennan2• 9 years ago

I think that's a fair response. Allowing unions isn't really philanthropy, but it's certainly related. He wouldn't have so much money to be "generous" with if all Amazon employees were treated fairly.

pera3• 9 years 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.

Waterluvian3• 9 years ago

"People are starving in Somalia"

"I think there's already a JIRA for that one."

pera3• 9 years 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.

braydenm• 9 years ago

The Effective Altruism community is a group of a few thousand people that have been attempting to do this for the last few years. Organizations like GiveWell.org (giving money) or 80000hours.org (giving time) have proved immensely helpful in my career and donation life choices.

adventured3• 9 years 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.

perseusprime113• 9 years 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.

Mz6• 9 years 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.

perseusprime113• 9 years 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• 9 years ago

Alexa?

viraptor2• 9 years ago

How is he planning to parse through millions of responses?

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.

perseusprime113• 9 years 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.

Mz6• 9 years ago

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

fwefwwfe2• 9 years ago

I easily find affordable housing in and around Seattle via Zillow. What are you expecting exactly that's not already out there?

Mz6• 9 years 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?

orionblastar• 9 years 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?

Mz6• 9 years ago

I am not pro basic income.

https://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/p/ir2.html

douche2• 9 years 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• 9 years ago

Having a PMI means you're living beyond your means already.

douche2• 9 years 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.

zaroth3• 9 years 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• 9 years 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• 9 years 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.

viraptor2• 9 years ago

Why do you think that? http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do seems to be doing just that and has pretty good results.

SolarNet• 9 years 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.

tim3332• 9 years 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• 9 years 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• 9 years 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• 9 years ago

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

nebabyte• 9 years ago

Eh, not big on traditionalism.

lostmsu• 9 years ago

Fusion.

mc32• 9 years 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• 9 years 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• 9 years 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.

Jeff Bezos Wants Ideas for Philanthropy, So He Asked Twitter

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