{"id":18545,"date":"2018-05-01T18:52:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T10:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-focus-on-space-spending-sparks-questions-about-philanthropy\/"},"modified":"2018-05-01T18:52:31","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T10:52:31","slug":"jeff-bezos-focus-on-space-spending-sparks-questions-about-philanthropy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-focus-on-space-spending-sparks-questions-about-philanthropy\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos\u2019 focus on space spending sparks questions about philanthropy"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_383087\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-383087\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-383087\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/150825-bezosblue2-630x354.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff Bezos\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/150825-bezosblue2-630x354.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/150825-bezosblue2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/150825-bezosblue2-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/150825-bezosblue2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-383087\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and one of his Blue Origin rockets. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates spends billions of dollars a year on global health, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is putting $1 billion a year into his Blue Origin space venture&nbsp;\u2014 and some folks have a problem with that.<\/p>\n<p>The issue is coming to the fore in the wake of Bezos\u2019 comments last week that Blue Origin represents \u201cthe most important work that I\u2019m doing,\u201d and is funded with billions of dollars of his personal wealth.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos sees his share of Amazon\u2019s success as the equivalent of \u201clottery winnings\u201d that currently translate to an estimated net worth of $130 billion, making him the world\u2019s richest individual.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel,\u201d Bezos said last week during an Axel Springer award ceremony in Berlin. \u201cThat is basically it. Blue Origin is expensive enough to be able to use that fortune. I am liquidating about $1 billion a year of Amazon stock to fund Blue Origin. And I plan to continue to do that for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That sentiment is in line with Bezos\u2019 long-held passion to pioneer the space frontier by making it possible for millions of people to live and work in space, preserving Earth in the process. He\u2019s gotten used to acknowledging that the main reason for starting up Amazon was to get the money to fund space development.<\/p>\n<p>But as last week\u2019s comments became widely distributed, they attracted pushback from folks who pointed out concerns closer to home:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/DannyPage\/status\/991368277153660929<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=991368369151594497&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2018%2Fjeff-bezos-focus-space-spending-sparks-questions-philanthropy%2F&amp;sessionId=c174a1d0eba6f6b5618a05639510b0c7adfabf53&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"991368369151594497\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782801162633661467=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\">pic.twitter.com\/iJ3i9aT3uZ<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) May 1, 2018<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-1&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=991398252665696257&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2018%2Fjeff-bezos-focus-space-spending-sparks-questions-philanthropy%2F&amp;sessionId=c174a1d0eba6f6b5618a05639510b0c7adfabf53&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"991398252665696257\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782801162633661467=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Billionaires like Bezos and Musk are obsessed with space travel because it helps them maintain the illusion that they&#8217;re technological prometheans at the vanguard of civilizational progress, rather than greedy plutocrats who happen to own expensive bits of paper<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Luke Savage (@LukewSavage) May 1, 2018<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the glare from Bezos\u2019 comments about Blue&nbsp;Origin eclipsed other comments that he made about his philanthropic causes.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, he put out the call for suggestions on how to spend his money. A couple of months later, he promised there\u2019d be \u201cmore to come\u201d \u2014 and he touched on that in last week\u2019s interview:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI am going to end up doing a mixture of things. We started doing in Seattle, there is a homeless shelter called Mary\u2019s Place, run by a woman named Marty. And that has really impacted my thinking on this issue, because what I\u2019m seeing is \u2014 I\u2019m in favor of all \u2014 long-term-oriented philanthropy is also very good idea. I\u2019m not against that. I\u2019m finding I am very motivated by the here and now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeeing a lot of the homelessness that Mary\u2019s Place works on is transient homelessness. When you go study homelessness, there are a bunch of causes of homelessness. Mental-incapacity issues are a very hard-to-cure problem. Serious drug addictions are very hard-to-cure problems. But there is another bucket of homelessness is this transient homelessness. Which is, you know, a woman with kids, the father runs away and he was the only person providing any income. They have no support system; they have no family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s transient homelessness. You can really help that person, and by the way, you only have to help them for six to nine months. You get them trained. You get them a job. They are perfectly productive members of society.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Last year, Amazon announced plans to set up a permanent shelter for homeless families on its Seattle campus, run by Mary\u2019s Place. Bezos has also encouraged donations to Mary\u2019s Place through a gift-matching program. (For what it\u2019s worth, this year\u2019s one-day GiveBig Seattle philanthropic campaign takes place on May 9.)<\/p>\n<p>Amazon and Bezos have long come under criticism for not living up to Gates\u2019 standard in the philanthropy department, but there are signs that\u2019s changing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In January, Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos,&nbsp;donated $33 million to fund scholarships for Dreamers.<\/li>\n<li>Last year, the Bezos family contributed $35 million to Seattle\u2019s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.<\/li>\n<li>And in 2016, Amazon put in $10 million for a new computer science building at the University of Washington.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Jeff Bezos\u2019 other causes include clean energy technology, children\u2019s television&nbsp;and even a clock designed to run for 10,000 years. Then there\u2019s The Washington Post, which Bezos bought in 2013 for $250 million.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s no denying that his biggest passion is Blue Origin, which successfully conducted an uncrewed test launch last weekend and could start flying people on suborbital space trips by the end of the year. And that\u2019s just one small step toward having millions of people working beyond Earth&nbsp;\u2014 which goes to show how expensive space ventures can be.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos insists that his reasons for wanting to facilitate space travel aren\u2019t aimed at leaving Earth behind. Rather, the point is to move heavy industrial activity and the associated requirements for heavy-duty energy generation into space, and preserve our home planet for \u201cresidential and light industrial use.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to go to space to save the Earth,\u201d Bezos said at Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight in 2016, during an earlier awards ceremony. \u201cI don\u2019t like the \u2018Plan B\u2019 idea that we want to go to space so we have a backup planet. \u2026 We have sent probes to every planet in this solar system, and believe me, this is the best planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Will $1 billion a year be enough? There\u2019s an argument to be made that if Bezos is really serious about his long-term vision, he should be spending more, not less:<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-2\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-2&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=991370991887638529&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2018%2Fjeff-bezos-focus-space-spending-sparks-questions-philanthropy%2F&amp;sessionId=c174a1d0eba6f6b5618a05639510b0c7adfabf53&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"991370991887638529\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782801162633661467=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thinking out loud \u2026 <\/p>\n<p>The biggest hurdles to space-based solar power, which would solve a lot of problems here on Earth, are cheap launch and a lot of up-front investment (tens of $billions).<\/p>\n<p>One wonders whether if this is Bezos&#8217; goal. Talk about a legacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) May 1, 2018<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Update for 11:30 a.m. PT May 2:<\/strong> I\u2019ve revised this report to make clear that this year\u2019s $33 million scholarship contribution came from Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos rather than the Bezos Family Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and one of his Blue Origin rockets. (Blue Origin Photo) While Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates spends billions of dollars a year on global health, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is putting $1 billion a year into his Blue Origin space venture&nbsp;\u2014 and some folks have a problem with that. The issue is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,1046,4756],"class_list":["post-18545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-philanthropy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}