A letter to our daughter • Hacker News Board

Re: A letter to our daughter

#551

Post by cdcarter » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 5:17 AM UTC

cplease wrote: post #550

cdcarter wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Initiative is an LLC and not a public charity or private foundation, so as not to limit the activities they can take part in. This will all be taxed at some point (though the Initiative may further grant shares to public charities).

Yeah, I missed this the first time around. But you are not quite correct. An LLC is a pass-through entity. No doubt it will be treated as a disregarded entity for federal tax purposes. So, gifting shares to an LLC is not a taxable event. If the LLC sells shares for a non-charitable purpose (e.g. lobbying, or funding commercial ventures), then sure, that will be taxable. But if it in turn donates shares to either a pr…

However, if the Initiative ever liquidates shares, regardless of what it does with them, they'll owe cap gains just M+P would have.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#552

Post by bigbugbag » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 9:20 AM UTC

danols wrote: post #473

bigbugbag wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you read it? If you have you clearly haven't understood a word of it, he's not giving dollars but stock. And he's not so much giving it but says he will over the course of his lifetime. The PR stunt is making this public under the guise of a supposed letter to his child, he could have done all this without the media fuss.

By the time he gives it away it is likely worth more than 45B. So unless he is willing to give it away on the spot the same day it is not worth anything and is just a PR stunt? Sure I don't particularly like the letter and the way he announced it or even the guy for that matter but he just committed 99% of his net worth to charity and deserve some credit for that. Not people bitching and moaning about how he did it i…

Well turns out he'll be giving he's not giving anything to a charity foundation after all but investing in a LLC investment fund / holding, you know to retain the ability to lobby and make profit and do away with the 5% rules.

Thanks for the kind attempt to reframe the discussion by putting me in the spotlight but what I do with my life has nothing to do with the current matter nor with my legibility to contribute to the discussion.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#553

Post by bigbugbag » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 10:08 AM UTC

WWKong wrote: post #527

bigbugbag wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for the internet and computers and electricity and a few other things. I hope you understand that your personal experience is anecdotal evidence at best and perception bias for you didn't take into account the downside for the rest of the population. What about this stubborn family member who refuses to have a facebook account because he believes in privacy as a fundamental freedom, how exactly facebook is bri…

Anecdotal? Perception bias? Okay, let's go by hard data. 1.4 Billion active users. Billion of advertising dollar flowing through the platform because users are engaged. How many billions of family pictures shared and enjoyed? You think people are suffering through the experience and being forced to use facebook? Think again. And that stubborn family member with the tin foil hat (edge case), he can surely pick up the…

yes one's own experience is always anecdotal and due to perception bias we believe our personal experience to be significant. You're not special, we pretty much all do this.

Please define active user as it could mean anything, then again don't, as number of used (which is more appropriate than users for facebook) and advertising dollars are hardly valid metrics for bringing people together and positive life changing. Turns out you are right actually, some are suffering through the experience and feel they are forced to use facebook[1][2][2], note that they are mostly in the same demographic group which happen to be the next generations of adults.

This tin foil hat edge case is a boat that has sailed a while ago, facebook is a major privacy problem[3][4][5] and as we know privacy is the foundation for liberty and freedoms. But Facebook is also censorship[6][7] and manufacturing public opinion[8].

Not only that, but contrary to your personal experience facebook usually makes people miserable and feel bad about themselves[9][10][11][12] and other personal experience point to it being bad and getting worse at giving you the meaningful posts[13].

If you care about your loved ones and family you should help them get away from facebook[14][15], not trap them in by putting all you interactions with them there.

[1]: https://medium.com/backchannel/a-teenagers-view-on-social-me...

[2]: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/05/22/teenagers_ha...

[2]: http://mashable.com/2013/08/11/teens-facebook/

[3]: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-security/why-you-should-...

[4]: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/23/1218189/-HBGary-Pal...

[5]: http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/06/the-online-privacy-lie-is-u...

[6]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/01...

[7]: https://www.aclu.org/blog/naked-statue-reveals-one-thing-fac...

[8]: https://medium.com/message/engineering-the-public-289c913902...

[9]: http://www.npr.org/2012/10/18/163098594/in-constant-digital-...

[10]: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214...

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/mar/17/facebook-d...

[11]: http://qz.com/546799/a-study-forced-people-to-quit-facebook-...

[12]: http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/2158359...

https://hbr.org/2011/12/facebook-is-making-us-miserabl

[13]: https://www.refheap.com/ee96f4d90abd10b643cee0448

[14]: http://saintsal.com/facebook/

[15]: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/ma...

Re: A letter to our daughter

#554

Post by tertius » Fri, Dec 04, 2015, 10:21 PM UTC

ethanbond wrote: post #522

tertius wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read up you'll see the attitude I was responding to was contrary to that of charity.

So are you commentating on attitude, or on people's actual real world efforts towards charitable giving?

Saying that "He's rich he can give a lot. I'll give when I get rich."

When in fact the OP is already in a position to give, he just needs some perspective.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#555

Post by WWKong » Mon, Dec 07, 2015, 6:36 PM UTC

bigbugbag wrote: post #553

WWKong wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal? Perception bias? Okay, let's go by hard data. 1.4 Billion active users. Billion of advertising dollar flowing through the platform because users are engaged. How many billions of family pictures shared and enjoyed? You think people are suffering through the experience and being forced to use facebook? Think again. And that stubborn family member with the tin foil hat (edge case), he can surely pick up the…

yes one's own experience is always anecdotal and due to perception bias we believe our personal experience to be significant. You're not special, we pretty much all do this. Please define active user as it could mean anything, then again don't, as number of used (which is more appropriate than users for facebook) and advertising dollars are hardly valid metrics for bringing people together and positive life changing.…

We both agree that individual experience is anecdotal. That is why I tried the way of stats. But you are now questioning the number of users on fb. That boat has sailed few yrs back.

A.We can all confidently agree that a large number of users use fb.

B. Most of what you have linked is opinion pieces. The first one I clicked had private chat transcripts from Zuckerberg when he was a kid and fb was nothing like what it is today.

C. Some studies are referenced which show people are miserable using social networks. Similar results have been "derived" for almost anything: news, video games, television, cell phones etc. I recommend taking it with a pinch of salt.

D. You say that advertising dollars mean nothing. Exactly the opposite is true. Try getting coke, kraft, apple and other brands to associate themselves with something that makes miserable.