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A letter to our daughter

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Re: A letter to our daughter

#221

Post by ethanbond »

tertius wrote: post #209
Swizec wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As my mum used to say "It's easy to shit when your butt is full". How hard is it, really, to give away 99% when you're still left with enough to comfortably sustain 5+ lifetimes? Bill Gates said it well here: http://imgur.com/gallery/YDuoHdr That said, I hope that if I ever get into a position like that, I too will be able to look beyond my personal greed and desire to increase the high score.

"I hope that if I ever get into a position like that, I too will be able to look beyond my personal greed and desire to increase the high score." Are you an American? Well sir, your butt is full and you're keeping it all to yourself. Stolen metaphors aside, you're in the 1% of the world and you can actually make a difference. "How hard is it?" You tell me.

Since when is wealth synonymous with comfort?

There are people in America who are within the top 1% of global wealth but struggle to feed themselves, or to keep themselves healthy, or to shelter themselves, etc.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#222

Post by likerofnews »

agorabinary wrote: post #72
prezjordan wrote: post #2

> We will give 99% of our Facebook shares -- currently about $45 billion -- during our lives to advance this mission. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others. Ninety. Nine. Percent.

Will this ~$45 billion go to efficient use? Based on his track record of $100 million to newark and how effective that was, I am skeptical. Good intentions in philanthropy are a dime a dozen, actual results are less common.

Did you actually read the results of the $100 million going to Newark instead of blindly believing the media? Probably not... #uninformed.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#223

Post by likerofnews »

ryandrake wrote: post #63

Something's always bugged me about relying on philanthropy as a source of funding the public good, as opposed to the public funding the public good through taxation and the democratic process: In the former case, the public doesn't really have much of a say about where the help goes. We must rely on the judgment (and personal values) of a few rich people and hope they pick charities that maximize the benefit. Would t…

If you have the ability and luck to make a billion dollars, you probably have a bit more skill than the average Joe to determine where that money should go...

Re: A letter to our daughter

#224

Post by likerofnews »

ryandrake wrote: post #63

Something's always bugged me about relying on philanthropy as a source of funding the public good, as opposed to the public funding the public good through taxation and the democratic process: In the former case, the public doesn't really have much of a say about where the help goes. We must rely on the judgment (and personal values) of a few rich people and hope they pick charities that maximize the benefit. Would t…

If you have the ability and luck to make a billion dollars, you probably have a bit more skill than the average Joe to determine where that money should go...

Re: A letter to our daughter

#225

Post by tertius »

Swizec wrote: post #215
tertius wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I hope that if I ever get into a position like that, I too will be able to look beyond my personal greed and desire to increase the high score." Are you an American? Well sir, your butt is full and you're keeping it all to yourself. Stolen metaphors aside, you're in the 1% of the world and you can actually make a difference. "How hard is it?" You tell me.

> Are you an American? Nope. Born in Yugoslavia (communist/socialist), raised in Slovenia (ex-socialist), now in the US for ~8 months. Don't even have my status fully resolved yet. Right now I can barely keep up with rent and building some savings. At current rate it will take me 46,875 years to save up as much as Zuck will have left over after the 99%. Next question?

> Nope. Born in Yugoslavia (communist/socialist), raised in Slovenia (ex-socialist)

Okay, top 5%. (*I'm not an American, though I too have moved here.)

> Next question?

"How hard is it?" You tell me.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#226

Post by tertius »

ethanbond wrote: post #221
tertius wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I hope that if I ever get into a position like that, I too will be able to look beyond my personal greed and desire to increase the high score." Are you an American? Well sir, your butt is full and you're keeping it all to yourself. Stolen metaphors aside, you're in the 1% of the world and you can actually make a difference. "How hard is it?" You tell me.

Since when is wealth synonymous with comfort? There are people in America who are within the top 1% of global wealth but struggle to feed themselves, or to keep themselves healthy, or to shelter themselves, etc.

> within the top 1% of global wealth

> but struggle to feed themselves

Wealth means assets. If you can't feed yourself you do not have assets and therefore you don't have wealth.

There is extreme lack of poverty in the U.S. (not complete, and compared to all countries). There is no reason for anyone to go without food.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#227

Post by bertil »

6stringmerc wrote: post #35

Okay, maybe it's just me, but after reading the introduction and getting through the list of extremely difficult "Can we..." challenges followed by the "We must..." directives, the first quote that popped into my head was a variation of “a poor man is crazy, but a rich man is just ‘eccentric.’” I get the desire to solve the world's ills, of society's shortcomings, of essentially fixing the thousands of years of evolu…

> for every 10 people who gain internet access, about one person is lifted out of poverty

That particular number is… shall we say “often” used by Facebook’s PR? (Another way of expressing that comes to mind, but I'm not sure how to spell 'jackhammer').

The source is presumably the numbers in there: http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/t... matched with the corresponding internet adoption in those countries at the same time. The parallel is discutable, expressly so.

Full disclosure: I tried and wasn’t able to match those numbers myself (with internal ressources, when I was working for Fb); I would strongly encourage anyone curious to go through the methodology notes: there are many things that deserves to be discussed around equality, literacy, institutional change. Basically, things that are looked at independently by the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and the Society for Institutional & Organizational Economics (SIOE, formerly ISNIE). Neither institution have been involved in that estimation as far as I can tell — and they would have tremendous impact on the nuanced understanding of those forces once they do.

I believe that Facebook can have a dramatic impact on emerging markets, especially with their advertising platform; I know personally who works on measuring that, and I know it is too early to have a proper macroeconomic estimation — but the impact should be very encouraging: there are many places where you cannot grow your business easily.

In the meantime, I would take that argument as: Mark Zuckerberg wants Facebook, Internet.org and internet access in general to lift people out of poverty and into jobs. That means that arguments that argue against his efforts that involve negative effects less than a tenth of “being about to feed their family” will seem quaint to him. Measuring all impacts into orders of magnitude like that can seem a heartless exercice to many, but should not feel foreign to a regular reader of HackerNews.

On the other hand, this also means that efforts that connect internet technology with finding or creating jobs should have MZ’s undying support (modulo a possible ad fee).

What I believe is more interesting are things like: Does Internet favour local commerce or international transactions? (Unclear) Are devices and platform used for business similar to those used for personal transaction? (Apparently, yes.) Will West Africa still be ruled by Mama Benz's, even with widespread adoption the smartphone? (Three forces cannot be stopped in this universe: Death, taxes and Mama Benz's dressing up on Sunday. Samsung better adapt.)

Re: A letter to our daughter

#228

Post by tertius »

Swizec wrote: post #215
tertius wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I hope that if I ever get into a position like that, I too will be able to look beyond my personal greed and desire to increase the high score." Are you an American? Well sir, your butt is full and you're keeping it all to yourself. Stolen metaphors aside, you're in the 1% of the world and you can actually make a difference. "How hard is it?" You tell me.

> Are you an American? Nope. Born in Yugoslavia (communist/socialist), raised in Slovenia (ex-socialist), now in the US for ~8 months. Don't even have my status fully resolved yet. Right now I can barely keep up with rent and building some savings. At current rate it will take me 46,875 years to save up as much as Zuck will have left over after the 99%. Next question?

Also, try https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/how-rich-am-i/

Re: A letter to our daughter

#229

Post by jonknee »

Bedon292 wrote: post #178
jonknee wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current capital gains tax rate he would be avoiding is 20%, or $9b at today's Facebook market cap. There is also a 3.8% Medicare tax added on that would come to another $1.7B. The state of California would also get their hands on it and take another 13.3% (or about $6B). tl;dr Giving capital gains away is very tax advantageous!

I did miss the Medicare Tax part yes, however he takes a $1 salary which would put his regular tax bracket at 10% and long term capital gains would be 0% to start and work his way up to 15%. As long as he doesn't cash out $400k a year he never pays that 20%, and he shouldn't need to ever. You also need to subtract IPO price from current price. Which is about going to drop those estimates about 35%. It still a big chu…

It would be shocking if he doesn't have alternate income from investments that would knock him up to the top tax bracket. Even moderate dividends on $25m add up to putting you in the top bracket. I have to imagine he has more than $25m in non-Facebook assets.

Regardless, he's saving a fortune in tax by donating money to his own foundation. It could turn out to be awesome like the Gates Foundation, but it could also be a decades long experiment in tossing money down the drain as he works on pet projects. Hopefully the former!

Re: A letter to our daughter

#230

Post by itistoday2 »

imgabe wrote: post #211
6stringmerc wrote: post #35

Okay, maybe it's just me, but after reading the introduction and getting through the list of extremely difficult "Can we..." challenges followed by the "We must..." directives, the first quote that popped into my head was a variation of “a poor man is crazy, but a rich man is just ‘eccentric.’” I get the desire to solve the world's ills, of society's shortcomings, of essentially fixing the thousands of years of evolu…

Yeah, he wants to give away tens of billions of dollars to help reduce poverty and fight diseases. What a narcissistic jerk.

With Mark, saying and doing are two completely different things.

Example: "Helping poor people in third world countries get online" turned out to be: "Deceiving poor people in third world countries into using something called 'Internet' that's actually 'Facebook with apps', and depriving them of real online access."

That whole thing ended up being an attack on the free and open web.

"Share with friends only" is short for "Share with friends and FB employees and PRISM-subscribers while we decide who gets to see what you shared."

I could go on for quite some time.

Somehow all the "help" he tries to provide ends up increasing his control over other people's lives while disempowering them.

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