It's sad to see so much misplaced cynicism here. If the partners had decided to keep 100% of their carry (as is typical) and used it to buy a bigger house or jet or something, nobody would comment or care. Instead, they've pledged to give half to some of their favorite charities, and some of you are acting as if it's a crime against humanity. Put away your Ayn Rand books (or whatever it is that drives you to such opinions) and go make some money of your own. Perhaps you'll discover that Andreessen and friends aren't as foolish as you imagine.
Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity
41–50 of 194 posts
Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity
#42It's sad to see so much misplaced cynicism here. If the partners had decided to keep 100% of their carry (as is typical) and used it to buy a bigger house or jet or something, nobody would comment or care. Instead, they've pledged to give half to some of their favorite charities, and some of you are acting as if it's a crime against humanity. Put away your Ayn Rand books (or whatever it is that drives you to such opi…
> Put away your Ayn Rand books ... and go make some money of your own.
Does Ayn Rand have similar opinions? I'm trying to figure out what you mean by that.
Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity
#43It's sad to see so much misplaced cynicism here. If the partners had decided to keep 100% of their carry (as is typical) and used it to buy a bigger house or jet or something, nobody would comment or care. Instead, they've pledged to give half to some of their favorite charities, and some of you are acting as if it's a crime against humanity. Put away your Ayn Rand books (or whatever it is that drives you to such opi…
It's sad to see so much misplaced cynicism here.
How much cynicism are you seeing in this thread?
Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity
#44It's sad to see so much misplaced cynicism here. If the partners had decided to keep 100% of their carry (as is typical) and used it to buy a bigger house or jet or something, nobody would comment or care. Instead, they've pledged to give half to some of their favorite charities, and some of you are acting as if it's a crime against humanity. Put away your Ayn Rand books (or whatever it is that drives you to such opi…
> Put away your Ayn Rand books ... and go make some money of your own. Does Ayn Rand have similar opinions? I'm trying to figure out what you mean by that.
She was against people feeling like they had an obligation to self-sacrifice, but she wasn't against charity as the projection of one's own values [1]. A lot of people misunderstand Ayn Rand.
Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity
#45It's sad to see so much misplaced cynicism here. If the partners had decided to keep 100% of their carry (as is typical) and used it to buy a bigger house or jet or something, nobody would comment or care. Instead, they've pledged to give half to some of their favorite charities, and some of you are acting as if it's a crime against humanity. Put away your Ayn Rand books (or whatever it is that drives you to such opi…
> Put away your Ayn Rand books ... and go make some money of your own. Does Ayn Rand have similar opinions? I'm trying to figure out what you mean by that.
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Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity
#46It's sad to see so much misplaced cynicism here. If the partners had decided to keep 100% of their carry (as is typical) and used it to buy a bigger house or jet or something, nobody would comment or care. Instead, they've pledged to give half to some of their favorite charities, and some of you are acting as if it's a crime against humanity. Put away your Ayn Rand books (or whatever it is that drives you to such opi…
> Put away your Ayn Rand books ... and go make some money of your own. Does Ayn Rand have similar opinions? I'm trying to figure out what you mean by that.
I can't actually see into their houses, so I'm just speculating that they have some Ayn Rand books, but I've noticed a strong correlation between liking Ayn Rand and thinking charity is bad.
Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity
#47This is great. Something people often disregard, but which is hugely important, is charity effectiveness. This boils down to measuring the impact that you can make with a given donation: it turns out some charities are literally thousands of times more effective than others. A lot of people don't realise how much good they can do with modest donations to the right charities -- until a year ago I really had no idea my…
clearly a PR ploy. it's a waste of capital imo. Reduce your management fee and carried interest income and return them to your LP. or re-invest that capital in start-ups to create even more jobs. edit: it's their money and what they do with it is their business. but they're in the venture capital business, not in the charity business. their job is to deploy capital and maximize returns to their investors (they create…
> "they're in the venture capital business, not in the charity business"
They're in the business of being human.
As is true for any of us, that means something complex, multidimensional, and personal. It's not some sort of affront to venture capitalism to use the profits it generates for something other than more venture capitalism. It's not a "waste of capital" to use your own capital for whatever you find important.
Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity
#48It's sad to see so much misplaced cynicism here. If the partners had decided to keep 100% of their carry (as is typical) and used it to buy a bigger house or jet or something, nobody would comment or care. Instead, they've pledged to give half to some of their favorite charities, and some of you are acting as if it's a crime against humanity. Put away your Ayn Rand books (or whatever it is that drives you to such opi…
By giving half their profit to charity, one could take them as implying that profit is bad, that they don't deserve everything they earned, and that they are appeasing the irrational anti-capitalists (if not siding with them).
I don't know anything about this particular case, but in general many businessmen are complicit in bad philosophy, and sometimes even pay to promote it. That's shameful and harmful.
Business people trade for mutual benefit. That provides value to society even if they never give a dime to charity. And even if they do give a dime to charity, their actual business activities provide more value, both for themselves and others. Businessmen should be proud.
You can find this sort of opinion in the Ayn Rand book _Why Businessmen Need Philosophy_. You might want to read it, and make some effort to reply to its arguments, before dismissing it as wrong enough to dismissively insult in passing.
Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity
#49It's sad to see so much misplaced cynicism here. If the partners had decided to keep 100% of their carry (as is typical) and used it to buy a bigger house or jet or something, nobody would comment or care. Instead, they've pledged to give half to some of their favorite charities, and some of you are acting as if it's a crime against humanity. Put away your Ayn Rand books (or whatever it is that drives you to such opi…
> Put away your Ayn Rand books ... and go make some money of your own. Does Ayn Rand have similar opinions? I'm trying to figure out what you mean by that.
The point is that those people who are most likely to have a negative opinion of this are the types that read Ayn Rand and quote her. It's not so much a statement about her beliefs (I could see this going either way, really), but a statement about the people who she inspires.
Re: Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity
#50It's sad to see so much misplaced cynicism here. If the partners had decided to keep 100% of their carry (as is typical) and used it to buy a bigger house or jet or something, nobody would comment or care. Instead, they've pledged to give half to some of their favorite charities, and some of you are acting as if it's a crime against humanity. Put away your Ayn Rand books (or whatever it is that drives you to such opi…
it's not foolish. it's just not the most efficient way to spend capital. look at it from the point of view of the LPs. A VCs job is to deploy capital and maximize return to it's investors. they should reduce their management fee and carried interest income, and give them back to the LP, or re-invest them and fund more start-ups/create more jobs.
My opinion on this would've been different if they said "I am personally giving 50% of my money to charity in perpetuity..."