While I’m still not thrilled with the fact that CEO’s can do this sort of thing [h/t]. But as long as they can, this is a lot better than them spending it on the bad side of an initiative.
Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie announced a gift Friday of $2.5 million to the campaign to defend Washington’s same-sex marriage law.
With the gift, Washington United for Marriage has raised more than $5 million for the Referendum 74 campaign. Last month Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and co-founder Bill Gates each donated $100,000 to support the law.
Dominic Holden on Slog linked to a poll a while ago that suggested that marriage equality might be in trouble. So hopefully this will help turn things around.
I’m beginning to wonder – is it really possible that we have so many people fighting with each other so visciously on all manner of issues? Or are the newspaper and broadcast media conglomerates hyping the “fear factor” to ensure competative fundraising, most of which goes for media ads?
It sort of reminds me of Abromoff – taking money from one Native American tribe to lobby for their gambling ambitions, and another tribe to fight against it.
Has the local media become the equivilent of the “merchants of death”, selling deadly weapons to both sides of a conflict, thereby encouring the fighting to go on for generations? Some of the advertising you see over the past ten years + sure looks lie a deadly poison, guaranteed to kill civil discourse and genuine debate on the issues.
About time this guy something back to the community that has helped him build a MASSIVE fortune.
(The next sound you hear will be wingnut heads exploding)
Good to see that grinding up warehouse workers to grease the machinery destroying community bookselling and publishing is finally paying off for Washington in some way. Doing some right by the little people.
Does it make up for killing bookselling jobs en masse in exchange for crap wage brutal warehouse jobs, the dearth of philanthropy or the financing to defeat the high earners income tax or the total shirking of responsibility to collect sales taxes?
Jeff Bezos, 2.3% less douche than yesterday.
@4: Motives aside, I’m actually grateful that Amazon doesn’t do philanthropy. Look at what the Gates Foundation has been doing to American education and much else.
By not severely taxing billionaires, and by defunding the public sector in favor of helping corporations externalize costs, we build a plutocracy with insurmountable political power and the ability to shape public policy through philanthropic activity.
Although I agree with Bezos, Gates, and Ballmer on the issue of same-sex marriage, their $2.7 million demonstrates the extent to which capitalism has run amok.
I fucking can’t stand hard-core glibertarian Bezos but his political orientation does have just a little upside.
Shorter Carl: Rich people who spend money on conservative issues = TEH EVUL!
Rich people who spend money on progressive issues = A-OK with me!
ahhh, consistency..
@7,
When I say “I’m not thrilled with” something it’s usually understatement on my part. So when I say “I’m still not thrilled with the fact that CEO’s can do this sort of thing” it’s actually kind of the opposite of “A-OK with me!”
But don’t worry: some day when you graduate elementary school, your reading comprehension will improve. I’m just glad a 4th grader is interested in the news. Maybe try one of the websites that has less swearing, and ask your mom or dad for help when you don’t understand something.