Jeff Bezos in space

"Jeff Bezos forgot to thank all the hardworking Americans who actually paid taxes to keep this country running while he and Amazon paid nothing,"

Bezos, under fire for 'you guys paid for all this' remark, donates US$200 million

The New Shepard is actually a pretty cool piece of tech. Completely autonomous, and so far the only ship to perform a vertical landing while crewed. So while BEzos et al didn't get ultra deep into space, the ship itself is really cool.

I'm happy for Wally Funk after getting snubbed in the 60's.

jayem said:

He and 3 passengers reached an altitude of 66 miles. The Blue Origin vehicle launched from TX and landed upright.

The crew capsule sped to a peak altitude of 66 miles at three times the speed of sound before parting with the booster. The passengers experienced a brief feeling of weightlessness and could see the curvature of Earth on the brim of its atmosphere.

I guess there are no flat earthers in that crew.

Blue Origin successfully sends Jeff Bezos and three others to space and back

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Maybe ALL the windows made the world LOOK round.. yeah thats it!

Blade said:

Maybe ALL the windows made the world LOOK round.. yeah thats it!

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Its like driving 120 on the highway. The perception is the road gets narrower.

wing2000 said:

I'm not sure what value these efforts (Bezos and Branson) have for society at large. Billionaires experiencing space for a few minutes?

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It shows what actually happens with the wealth that was supposed to "trickle down" -- it gets launched into the stratosphere instead.

TLK Valentine said:

It shows what actually happens with the wealth that was supposed to "trickle down" -- it gets launched into the stratosphere instead.

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Just another example of the god of this world... self interest.

"I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this."

I know what he meant. That comma should have been a period. But the way it came off, I'll bet that there was a not insignificant number of Amazon employers saluting Jeff at that moment. Using just the one finger of course.

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Bradskii said:

"I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this."

I know what he meant. That comma should have been a period. But the way it came off, I'll bet that there was a not insignificant number of Amazon employers saluting Jeff at that moment. Using just the one finger of course.

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It's really a backhanded remark and is tasteless, given his obscene wealth and the fact he pays very little of his wealth in taxes. And given that we are still in a pandemic where many people share in economic hardships.

In fact, I think I'll be less likely to be inclined to use Amazon in the future, not moreso. I don't relish my dollars funding this man's narcissistic quest to rise above the rest of us- literally.

FireDragon76 said:

It's really a backhanded remark and is tasteless, given his obscene wealth and the fact he pays very of his wealth in taxes. And given that we are still in a pandemic where many people share in economic hardships.

In fact, I think I'll be less likely to be inclined to use Amazon in the future, not moreso. I don't relish my dollars funding this man's narcissistic quest to rise above the rest of us- literally.

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I use Amazon quite a lot - mostly buying Kindle books. And I kinda supported all these individual efforts at space shots. SpaceX for example is leading the way as a (relatively) inexpensive way to get to orbit. But Bezos? It seems more and more like a big boy's toy. Musk is at least using his wealth to investigate things like improved batteries. And I don't mind him making a gazillion dollars doing it - as long as there's a fair and reasonable tax being paid. Or...the money is put into enterprises that will benefit all.

If Musk said that rather than paying X% tax he'd put it all into R and D that we could see would have a benefit for all of us and not just his bottom line then there's an argument that it could be allowed. I think he might perhaps use the money more efficiently than just handing it over to the government. But then I'm a glass half full type of guy.

These guys are rich and can play these games because nothing comes out of their own pockets.

timothyu said:

These guys are rich and can play these games because nothing comes out of their own pockets.

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The Trump family is not the topic here. Oh, wait, you were talking about the actual billionaires. My bad.