Who Gets To Spend Your Money? | EP 192

From the Atlantic: It's Jeff Bezos's Planet Now On Monday, Jeff Bezos announced the creation of the Bezos Earth Fund, which will disperse $10 billion in the name of combatting climate change. The fund is a triumph of philanthropy—and a perfect emblem of a national failing. Or rather, a series of national failings. In a healthy democracy, the world's richest man wouldn't be able to painlessly make a $10 billion donation. His fortune would be mitigated by the tax collector; antitrust laws would constrain the growth of his business. Instead of relying on a tycoon to bankroll the national response to an existential crisis, there would be a national response. But in an age of political dysfunction, Bezos has begun to subsume the powers of the state. Where the government once funded the ambitious exploration of space, Bezos is leading that project, spending a billion dollars each year to build rockets and rovers. His company, Amazon, is spearheading an experimental effort to fix American health care; it will also spend $700 million to retrain workers in the shadow of automation and displacement. Meanwhile, swaths of the federal government have contracted with Amazon to keep data on the company's servers. Bezos is providing the vital infrastructure of state. When Amazon locates its second headquarters on the Potomac, staring across the river at the capital, it will provide a perfect geographic encapsulation of the new balance of power. Send an email to [email protected] to join the Trading class! Listen to pre and post show content on Patreon.com/goodmorningliberty --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/goodmorningliberty/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices