I Just Gave Up $4000 Per Month to Keep My Freedom of Speech • Hacker News Board

Re: I Just Gave Up $4000 Per Month to Keep My Freedom of Speech

#31

Post by slig » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 12:43 AM UTC

lizardking wrote: post #24

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #20

Since when did $4,000 a month become "FU Money." Is that serious? If you make $4K a month after taxes, I'd say you have a pretty small salary to just be honest with you. The article, I suppose, was about more than this but much of it spent so much time talking about how much money this is. I don't want any of the younger HNers around here to get the wrong idea, as I didn't really know when I was younger, this is not,…

I think you are misunderstanding the point. It's not that he was saying 4k a month is FU money (although it could be) its that since he ostensibly already has FU money he can turn down 4k a month so he doesn't have to compromise his principals. That said if you have zero debt, low expenses and a ton of money in an account that yields 4k a month in interest, 4k a month could be considered FU money.

In this case, how much of the 4k should be re-invested to counter the inflation?

Re: I Just Gave Up $4000 Per Month to Keep My Freedom of Speech

#32

Post by PythonDeveloper » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 12:44 AM UTC

metronegative wrote: post #9

Not being familiar with this guy's work, what's so honest about getting in bed with credit card companies and feeding them more signups? Selling lead generation for credit cards seems a little dishonest to begin with.

No more or less honest than running TV commercials to get you to buy products during a television show. I presume you have some sort of logarithmic honesty scale by which one can measure their dastardliness? If so, please share.

Re: I Just Gave Up $4000 Per Month to Keep My Freedom of Speech

#33

Post by scribu » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 12:45 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #25

It's certainly an interesting attitude. But what if he had decided to change the banner, and give the money away to a charity instead? Money is a tool you can use for good. If you are blessed with the kind of extra money he was suddenly given, you can use it to do good with. Obviously it's all his choice, but making a big show of "freedom of speech" feels a little disingenuous. No government is trying to censor him;…

Say you were already rich and someone offered you a boat-load of money to appear in a TV commercial and promote a product you don't believe in.

Would you accept the offer? It wouldn't take much effort and you could donate the money to charity, after all.

Re: I Just Gave Up $4000 Per Month to Keep My Freedom of Speech

#34

Post by PythonDeveloper » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 12:46 AM UTC

anthonyb wrote: post #17

alanfalcon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And not having a credit score can be a wonderful way to live life.

Until you need to borrow money for a car or a house...

You don't need a credit score if you can pay 50% down, which you may be able to do if you didn't pay all your money to the credit card companies.

Re: I Just Gave Up $4000 Per Month to Keep My Freedom of Speech

#35

Post by hollerith » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 12:47 AM UTC

alanfalcon wrote: post #14

Smudge wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But not having any credit cards can also negatively affect your credit score.

And not having a credit score can be a wonderful way to live life.

Until you want to rent an apartment in a place where there is a lot of competition for apartments, like the Bay Area.

Re: I Just Gave Up $4000 Per Month to Keep My Freedom of Speech

#36

Post by ry0ohki » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 12:48 AM UTC

gfodor wrote: post #4

PythonDeveloper wrote: post #2

Awesome article. Kudos for sticking to your guns, and I hope your revenues skyrocket, even though credit cards are the worst financial decision anyone could ever make. I'd rather YOU make money on their bad decisions than Chase or Citi.

Saying credit cards are bad financial decisions is like saying getting a drivers license is a bad safety decision. Beyond the fact that you can use credit cards to your financial benefit, simply getting the card has no consequences whatsoever. (Unless you buy into the 'you must keep a balance to maintain good credit' myth.)

If you don't read the details that's not always true. Some people get suckered into cards with annual fees. Also there is always a credit checked performed. If you sign up for a bunch of credit cards for the free incentive money, all those credit checks and 0 balance / high credit limit can have a (temporary) effect on your credit score.

Re: I Just Gave Up $4000 Per Month to Keep My Freedom of Speech

#37

Post by Smerity » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 12:51 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #25

It's certainly an interesting attitude. But what if he had decided to change the banner, and give the money away to a charity instead? Money is a tool you can use for good. If you are blessed with the kind of extra money he was suddenly given, you can use it to do good with. Obviously it's all his choice, but making a big show of "freedom of speech" feels a little disingenuous. No government is trying to censor him;…

Freedom of speech has many facets. I don't see this as being disingenuous at all as it literally did impinge on his choice of speech if he wanted to remain in the business relationship. This situation would be similar in nature to Microsoft forcing businesses to disavow Linux to remain in partnership with them. Censorship can be legal and doesn't have to come from a government for it to still be censorship.

The charity argument is unfair -- most people and businesses could give more money to charity if they live "comfortably". The manner in which he gives back to the community is purely for him to decide. In this situation it's not a free trade either as he needs to give up something quite important to him (censorship) to receive the money. He'd be endorsing a product or service that he doesn't believe in and changing the content of his product or site to fit with it.

Re: I Just Gave Up $4000 Per Month to Keep My Freedom of Speech

#38

Post by kprobst » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 12:57 AM UTC

metronegative wrote: post #9

Not being familiar with this guy's work, what's so honest about getting in bed with credit card companies and feeding them more signups? Selling lead generation for credit cards seems a little dishonest to begin with.

Without intending to pass judgement on the author of the article, the word you're looking for here is 'sleazy'.

Re: I Just Gave Up $4000 Per Month to Keep My Freedom of Speech

#39

Post by Retric » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 1:00 AM UTC

slig wrote: post #31

lizardking wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are misunderstanding the point. It's not that he was saying 4k a month is FU money (although it could be) its that since he ostensibly already has FU money he can turn down 4k a month so he doesn't have to compromise his principals. That said if you have zero debt, low expenses and a ton of money in an account that yields 4k a month in interest, 4k a month could be considered FU money.

In this case, how much of the 4k should be re-invested to counter the inflation?

That's a function of both inflation rate and your expected ROI. Using 3% inflation and 6% ROI you need to reinvest ~51.6% of your income to break even. (1-(ROI-((1/(1-inflation rate))-1)))/ ROI = 1-(.06-((1/(1-.03))-1))/.06 = ~51.6% Edit: Ok there must be a simpler way to write that...

((1/(1-inflation))-1) / ROI = ((1/(1-.03))-1)/.06 = 51.6%

PS: Just keeping what left over when you subtract the inflation rate from your ROI is close and you don't actually know the inflation rate or your long term ROI most of the time.

Re: I Just Gave Up $4000 Per Month to Keep My Freedom of Speech

#40

Post by mseebach » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 1:01 AM UTC

Uhm, he kept the links on a "recommends" page. And when Chase pulled the referrals, he removed them from that page which "After stripping out all the Chase stuff, my credit cards page is looking a little bare these days".

What does it tell us about his impenetrable integrity when his recommendations are predicated on the recommended product paying him? Surely Chase can't keep him from recommending the card - that would indeed be a free speech issue.

And no, it's not a principled stand against Chase: "We’ll see if we can find a less fearful company (or Chase rep) to step back up to the plate eventually."