The thing that gets me about his "critics" is really, what, exactly, are they criticizing?
Bezos already has the money. Whatever social evils went into the acquiring of that money are irrelevant to the question of how that money will be used.
Option one: he freezes his assets by investing in gold, artwork, or other physical trinkets. Not exactly socially beneficial.
Option two: he invests his assets in the market. We can argue the social beneficence here: I think "Bezos makes more money by helping other mini-Bezos make Bezos money" is a social positive, maybe you don't, whatever.
Option three: he spends his assets on a vanity project. Whether it's spaceflight or building a yacht, suddenly he's giving money pretty directly to the truck drivers, accountants, engineers, etc., exactly as you point out.
And there is no option four! There is no "donate it to charity." All donating money to charity does is take a chunk of money and say "I'm trusting someone else to choose option 1, 2, or 3." That's not a slam on charity — I donate a lot to charity — but just a statement that they, too, have to choose between asset freezing, investment, or spending. I donate to a food pantry, they in turn option-three it by driving to Costco and buying food in bulk for hungry people.
When people complain about Bezos spending money he's already acquired on spaceflight, my initial question for them is, "so which option should he have chosen?" And they never have a useful answer. Never.
It's like they've never held a job in their lives.
no subject
The thing that gets me about his "critics" is really, what, exactly, are they criticizing?
Bezos already has the money. Whatever social evils went into the acquiring of that money are irrelevant to the question of how that money will be used.
Option one: he freezes his assets by investing in gold, artwork, or other physical trinkets. Not exactly socially beneficial.
Option two: he invests his assets in the market. We can argue the social beneficence here: I think "Bezos makes more money by helping other mini-Bezos make Bezos money" is a social positive, maybe you don't, whatever.
Option three: he spends his assets on a vanity project. Whether it's spaceflight or building a yacht, suddenly he's giving money pretty directly to the truck drivers, accountants, engineers, etc., exactly as you point out.
And there is no option four! There is no "donate it to charity." All donating money to charity does is take a chunk of money and say "I'm trusting someone else to choose option 1, 2, or 3." That's not a slam on charity — I donate a lot to charity — but just a statement that they, too, have to choose between asset freezing, investment, or spending. I donate to a food pantry, they in turn option-three it by driving to Costco and buying food in bulk for hungry people.
When people complain about Bezos spending money he's already acquired on spaceflight, my initial question for them is, "so which option should he have chosen?" And they never have a useful answer. Never.
It's like they've never held a job in their lives.