Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad • Hacker News Board

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#41

Post by nowarninglabel » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 5:01 PM UTC

Sam_Odio wrote: post #32

sequoia wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I think that's great. Honestly I think it's awesome how he's redirecting this money from Starbucks to a worthwhile cause. BUT he can do that without the holier-than-thou attitude; the latter is not a requirement for the former. :) Basically I've heard that line before ("how can you X when Y is going on in the world??") and it's basically just a way to feel morally superior and boost your ego, it doesn't actually…

That's a valid point. But is pursuing art (or whatsver) admitting to yourself that you value art more than world hunger? After all, that's how you're allocating your resources. Fwiw, anyone who knows me know I don't have a holier-than-thou attitude (though I took one for this post). This was mostly meant as an edgy/controversial twist to the social experiment: how do peoople react when someone takes the money (which…

I don't know you, but you come off as quite pretentious.

I work for a charity/non-profit but that doesn't prevent me from seeing the value in a shared good experiment.

Asides from the myriad of other issues in your post, the most important one is that you completely ignore the fact that many people may donate quite a bit to charity, but also may wish to involve themselves in a thing like Jonathan's card. The two are not mutually exclusive, and deriving value from the latter may encourage someone to do more of the former. It looks like you were too short-sighted to actually think any of this through though in your attempt to make a selfish point.

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#42

Post by sequoia » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 5:02 PM UTC

Sam_Odio wrote: post #32

sequoia wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I think that's great. Honestly I think it's awesome how he's redirecting this money from Starbucks to a worthwhile cause. BUT he can do that without the holier-than-thou attitude; the latter is not a requirement for the former. :) Basically I've heard that line before ("how can you X when Y is going on in the world??") and it's basically just a way to feel morally superior and boost your ego, it doesn't actually…

That's a valid point. But is pursuing art (or whatsver) admitting to yourself that you value art more than world hunger? After all, that's how you're allocating your resources. Fwiw, anyone who knows me know I don't have a holier-than-thou attitude (though I took one for this post). This was mostly meant as an edgy/controversial twist to the social experiment: how do peoople react when someone takes the money (which…

Do you consider Hacker News threads more important that working to end world hunger? ;)

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#43

Post by khafra » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 5:02 PM UTC

Triumvark wrote: post #28

Gift cards held by a group are an interesting way to move money around with a little deniability. If there was an easier way to cash in Starbucks gift cards, Starbucks could take over Western Union.

Coffee-laundering. Interesting thought.

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#44

Post by zacharycohn » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 5:05 PM UTC

Sam_Odio wrote: post #32

sequoia wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I think that's great. Honestly I think it's awesome how he's redirecting this money from Starbucks to a worthwhile cause. BUT he can do that without the holier-than-thou attitude; the latter is not a requirement for the former. :) Basically I've heard that line before ("how can you X when Y is going on in the world??") and it's basically just a way to feel morally superior and boost your ego, it doesn't actually…

That's a valid point. But is pursuing art (or whatsver) admitting to yourself that you value art more than world hunger? After all, that's how you're allocating your resources. Fwiw, anyone who knows me know I don't have a holier-than-thou attitude (though I took one for this post). This was mostly meant as an edgy/controversial twist to the social experiment: how do peoople react when someone takes the money (which…

> "how do people react when someone takes the money (which is a public good) and imposes their own morals on it (even if it's for good)?"

Not well?

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#45

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 5:05 PM UTC

Udo wrote: post #20

So essentially you're proud of stealing huge amounts of money from a fund set up by people for a specific purpose, and then you channel this money to suit your own needs while claiming moral superiority ? You know, even if the money you stole for "the little children OMG think of the children" really reaches the intended recipients, which it probably won't if this is a typical 3rd world development fund, you still be…

[deleted]

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#46

Post by sequoia » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 5:06 PM UTC

Udo wrote: post #20

So essentially you're proud of stealing huge amounts of money from a fund set up by people for a specific purpose, and then you channel this money to suit your own needs while claiming moral superiority ? You know, even if the money you stole for "the little children OMG think of the children" really reaches the intended recipients, which it probably won't if this is a typical 3rd world development fund, you still be…

>On the plus side, I suppose now we know who kept on abusing the card (people were wondering in other threads).

I'm betting most of the people abusing the card aren't sending the proceeds to charity...

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#47

Post by Udo » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 5:11 PM UTC

sequoia wrote: post #46

Udo wrote: post #20

So essentially you're proud of stealing huge amounts of money from a fund set up by people for a specific purpose, and then you channel this money to suit your own needs while claiming moral superiority ? You know, even if the money you stole for "the little children OMG think of the children" really reaches the intended recipients, which it probably won't if this is a typical 3rd world development fund, you still be…

>On the plus side, I suppose now we know who kept on abusing the card (people were wondering in other threads). I'm betting most of the people abusing the card aren't sending the proceeds to charity...

Well, if he stole enough to buy an iPad, that's a large chunk of the missing money from the card right there.

I'm willing to bet most of the other people stealing from the card aren't rich and successful YC graduate entrepreneurs either but somehow that makes what he did much worse in my opinion. He's also a rich guy lecturing people on how they should be donating every little bit of their excess money to charity. I'm sorry but something about this whole constellation is making my blood boil.

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#48

Post by MatthewPhillips » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 5:12 PM UTC

Udo wrote: post #20

So essentially you're proud of stealing huge amounts of money from a fund set up by people for a specific purpose, and then you channel this money to suit your own needs while claiming moral superiority ? You know, even if the money you stole for "the little children OMG think of the children" really reaches the intended recipients, which it probably won't if this is a typical 3rd world development fund, you still be…

Jonathan said it was a social experiment. This, and people's reaction to it, is part of that.

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#49

Post by byrneseyeview » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 5:15 PM UTC

Donating money to starving children in Africa well-meaning, but cruel. Life in Africa sucks, and making people live there longer is not a good deed. The West has invested incredible sums of money into Africa, and the result is corruption, violence, and stagnation. They are begging us to stop:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,363663,00...

I believe that about as strongly as Sam believes that donating to Africa will help (this time is different!). Buuut I wouldn't feel justified in stealing from a charity in order to act on that belief.

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#50

Post by kingofspain » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 5:15 PM UTC

The rich steal stealing from the rich to eventually pass a percentage on to the poor. I'm sure it seemed much more Robin Hood-y at the time.

There are far less scummy ways to do something like this. Game a Bing promotion, take advantage of lax security in some other MegaCorp rewards programme - or gasp use your own money. Mind you, those guys are more likely to sue than a disparate bunch of well-meaning folks.