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Comment by codezero | Hacker News Reader

Great, but for context, if your net worth were $300,000, this would be the same as donating a dollar.

Edit: my math is wrong as hell and I was being way too cynical. Sorry folks.

For some additional context, $33M will fund 1,000 college scholarships. That's 1,000 lives changed for the better - I would love to have that impact on the world.

But how many lives are worst because money was spent on Amazon?

What do you mean? How many do you think?

I get a figure of $3000 instead of what you wrote. But I think you wanted to make the amount seem pathetic. Not sure why.

"If he has x billions of dollars he should give x billions of dollars" is what I get out of the comment.

33 million dollars is going to buy a truckload of TI calculators and other mandatory essentials.

You and the other commenters are correct. I’m feeling quite guilty of being as cynical as I often accuse others on HN of being.

You're strong enough to admit it, so feel less guilty. I'm as cynical as anyone else, but you do have to step back occasionally and see nice things for what they are: nice.

I see this as very beneficial but I consider nice to be a very different thing. With that said I have a bad record on being reasonable so let me revisit this tomorrow after I’ve slept on it :)

Yes :-) I was trying really hard not to say something negative. But the guy's calculations appear to be out by a factor of 100, was my point.

Yep. Way off. Thanks for calling that out in a very direct and courteous way. I didn’t deserve that.

Welcome. + I'm as scared of downvotes as the next guy :-)

HN would be a very different place if downvotes weren’t a threat.

TBH I’m not sure whether that is good or bad. I’ve seen many threads go way down into a place that makes me sick and others that get stifled because the view is dissenting. More concerning are the threads that never happen because smart people know not to even bother getting into it.

On average I think things are OK though :)

You are right and I am being very grumpy for no good reason. Thanks for correcting me.

Well, no, because an organization can do a lot more with 33 million dollars than they can with just one of them.

what purpose does this comment have? You think society shouldn't praise these acts because relative to the donors' worth they're not that "grand"? how does this perspective help anyone?

Fair point. I don’t have a strong argument but this seems to be another in a series of puff pieces about Bezos following on the stories about Amazon employees living on food stamps.

I don’t think this is newsworthy or meaningful.

With that said, I appreciate the downvotes and will try to appreciate the positive effects of this despite my obvious cynicism.

33 million dollars buys more tuition than one dollar.

What, he's worth billions so he's gotta give a cool bil or it's pocket change?

33 million dollars is a shitload of cash for a donation, I'm pretty sure MSF wouldn't mind a 33 million dollar donation. They basically cry every GDQ event and thank people for 10 minutes straight. That's for ~1 mil.

33 million dollars buys a lot of books, a lot of stupid TI calculators, etc.

I don’t expect him to give anything, however what I was trying to convey (and I admit I was wrong and not thinking of the general positive impact, and therefore what I was trying to convey was pointless) was that this wasn’t newsworthy, and seemed to be a puff piece to make Bezos sound more altruistic than he is.

Because as we all know: the important thing with charity is how much you suffer, not how much they benefit.

Not quite what I was going for but your point is taken and I accept that I was out of line.

It would still be better than doing nothing with that money.

I don’t think it is. This comes across as a fickle gesture from someone to improve their public image with almost no effort or commitment due to the absolute contribution seeming so grand but in relative terms it is not. But as I said in another comment I appreciate that I am probably being way too cynical.

I think you're minimizing just how cynical you're being.

33 million dollars is not a fickle gesture, hand that money to MSF or EFF and watch things happen. Think of all the bullshit you have to buy to attend college, nevermind tuition. That'd buy you a truckload of books and calculators.

Just because he has x billions of dollars doesn't mean x millions of dollars is worth any less to others, especially charitable causes.

You're probably right though, but why not use the money to improve your public image after being crowned richest man on Earth? I can't think of a single good reason.

sincerely signed,

a cold, hardened cynic.

You’re not wrong.

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