[sverige]

Interesting article. I thought Bezos was just another greedy, power-mad megalomaniac. That he's also a dewy-eyed Trekkie who rationalizes his greed with dreams of space colonization makes it even sillier. Who knew Gene Roddenberry was more dangerous than any economic theorist?

[morningseagulls]

>That he's also a dewy-eyed Trekkie who rationalizes his greed with dreams of space colonization makes it even sillier.

Space colonization is a form of greed: it's basically saying this world is not enough. So I don't see this as a rationalization: in fact, the article heavily suggests that his dream of space colonization was what led to his greed.

[andreilys]

You could just as easily say that space colonization is the highest form of humanitarianism.

If an extinction-level event occurs on earth, humanity can continue to flourish and populate the cosmos rather than go the way of the dinosaur.

[morningseagulls]

>You could just as easily say that space colonization is the highest form of humanitarianism.

"Greed" and humanitarianism are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they can be mutually compatible, depending on what your definition of "greed" is.

From an economic point of view, humanitarianism can serve the economic "greed" of the rich that's often decried. This is because both of these can be rooted in the realisation that humans have intrinsic economic value, so that the loss of a human life represents a loss of a lifetime of economic value to society.

In the case of Bezos, it's quite clear from the article that his humanitarianism is intrinsically linked to his "greed":

>When Bezos describes these colonies—and presents artists’ renderings of them—he sounds almost rapturous. “This is Maui on its best day, all year long. No rain, no storms, no earthquakes.” Since the colonies would allow the human population to grow without any earthly constraints, the species would flourish like never before: “We can have a trillion humans in the solar system, which means we’d have a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins. This would be an incredible civilization.”

"We can have a trillion humans [...] This would be an incredible civilization." Sounds familiar? This is essentially the siren song of the Chinese market, magnified a thousandfold.

[Infinitesimus]

> greedy, power-mad megalomaniac

Why do you think that of him?

[sverige]

With his Amazon warehouses, for most of his employees he's created the terrible future of poverty and misery that he allegedly dreams of saving humanity from with his space colonies. And his success isn't built on any innovation other than relentlessly keeping as much as he can for himself.

[MiguelFCA]

Hey Sverige,

I have been working for Amazon for over 2 years and I dont live in poverty or misery. In fact, thanks to my pay at Amazon (2x the minimum wage in my area) I can live quite comfortably. Thanks to my job I dont stress out when I think about my student loans. And thanks to the innovation which was implemented with robots, my job is a lot easier that what it would be without the assistance of the electronics we use.

- Miguel FC Ambassador

[gdy]

You have no idea of what poverty and misery are.

[sverige]

Having spent a year homeless on the streets and sometimes on friends' couches, I would say 'Fuck you.' But that would be rude.

[gdy]

That's what I thought. No idea.

And by the way, was that happening while you were working at Amazon?

[cambalache]

You have to be fantastically greedy to work so hard and for so much time to get an unfathomable quantity of money and keep going. I suppose there is nothing intrinsically wrong, but there is no need of Freud to tell us that greed is a very strong motivation to him.

[toasterlovin]

But what if accumulating wealth is a side effect, not the main motivation?

[petra]

Space colonization is probably about empire building - and people build empires to feel powerful.