INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
In a tweet this morning, Amazon founder (and the world richest man) Jeff Bezos announced that he and his wife were creating a $2 billion
fund to finance a network of non-profit preschools and donate funds to organizations helping homeless families.
The Day 1 Families Fund will
issue annual leadership awards to organizations and civic groups doing compassionate, needle moving work to provide shelter and hunger
support to address the immediate needs of young families,& Bezos writes in a statement.
There also a Day 1 Academies Fund which will launch
a network of free, Montessori-inspired schools in low income neighborhoods.
Bezos said that the schools will employ the &same set of
principles that have driven Amazon .& Which, for Bezos, means an intense focus on the customer.
The funds are called the &Day 1& funds
because they align with Bezos& stated philosophy of &maintaining a Day 1 mentality.
Starting a network of free schools for underprivileged
children and giving out money to help organizations that are working to alleviate the needs of the nation homeless are inarguably good
things, but it unclear whether these individual steps can work to address more systemic problems that underly problems of homelessness and a
lack of educational opportunity that exists more broadly in the country.
Perhaps Bezos was inspired to battle the nation homeless plight
when he saw this reporton Vickie Shannon Allen, an Amazon employee who became homeless after a workplace accident cost her her job.
It also
a bit rich to see Bezos tackle the issue of homelessness after his company was the mustache twirling arch nemesis of a bill in Seattle that
would have created a tax to finance homeless shelters and low income housing.
Fortunehas more on Amazon work to kill the
measure.
Amazonopposed the tax, originally floated at $500 a year for each of its Seattle employees
To signal its displeasure, the company halted construction on a new tower, and suggested it might sublet 722,000 square feet it had just
leased in a signature downtown building
When the council approved a reduced $275 tax, Amazon restarted construction on the tower
But it also joinedStarbucksand other local employers to fund a group, No Tax on Jobs, that raised over $300,000 to pay for signature
gatherers for a referendum to repeal the head tax
In a statement after the vote, Amazon vice president Drew Herdener said, &Today vote by the Seattle City Council to repeal the tax on job
creation is the right decision for the region economic prosperity.
With the new fund, Bezos joins a long line of incredibly mega-rich people
Chan-Zuckerberg and Gates Foundations… and Warren Buffett) who are taking it upon themselves to fund programs for social good.
It part
ofphilanthropy long history of ignoring broader structural issues as a way for billionaires to treat their contributions as a gift rather
than an obligation.
Here Bezo tweet announcing the new funds.
pic.twitter.com/2GlgjztK1u
mdash; Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) September 13,
