Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million • Hacker News Board

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#81

Post by phn » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 2:05 PM UTC

flyinRyan wrote: post #73

jfoster wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't seen evidence that the average facebook user cares that much about the things that you've mentioned. I fully accept that some of their users (or ex-users) do. I have seen plenty of blog posts and outraged media stories. Yet I haven't noticed any great attrition among my friends on facebook, which is what I would expect to see if people cared much about this stuff.

What on earth does "what most people feel" have to do with anything? Nobody in Germany seemed to care that much about what Hitler was doing until they lost the war.

Off-topic but:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwins_law

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#82

Post by maxerickson » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 2:06 PM UTC

loceng wrote: post #79

maxerickson wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's likely he can carry the deduction forward. (I do understand that he only saves some portion of the $500 million so it doesn't make sense to say he is doing it for tax purposes.)

I imagine once you have a guaranteed $10-$20 million to your name, you'd not need or have any attachment to any money after that.

I would at least believe that there is a point where most people start seeing money primarily as a tool (rather than something they primarily exchange for necessities...).

My qualification there was mostly intended to deflect the impression that I was sniping. I don't have any much knowledge of high end wealth management, but my understanding of it is that it is very difficult to use a charitable gift to actually make money. There is some tax benefit, but it is always smaller than the gift.

Apparently the big charity-as-tax-scam is to establish a bona fide foundation and then stack the board with people you would like to provide with income. But that foundation has to pass a smell test with the IRS, so it is really a tax and wealth management strategy, not a way to escape paying taxes (at least, paying taxes on income that gets used for something or other).

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#83

Post by rayiner » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 2:10 PM UTC

veidr wrote: post #26

jfaucett wrote: post #16

People can say what they want about Zuckerberg, maybe he doesn't have the amazing charisma of Jobs, or the genius of Torvalds, and Facebook gets constantly hammered in the press (and him as well), but this is a great gesture on his part, I applaud him.

Yeah, he deserves kudos for this, but he also deserves much of the shit that people talk about him. Facebook is a company that is loathed roughly in proportion to the degree that people understand what they actually do to make their money: adorn your baby or wedding photos with fart app ads, put your own face on various ads that you know nothing about, make you play whack-a-mole with their settings UI to preserve wha…

Facebook is also, as a piece of software, utter crap.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#84

Post by natural219 » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 2:16 PM UTC

meaty wrote: post #23

jfaucett wrote: post #16

People can say what they want about Zuckerberg, maybe he doesn't have the amazing charisma of Jobs, or the genius of Torvalds, and Facebook gets constantly hammered in the press (and him as well), but this is a great gesture on his part, I applaud him.

Well he deserves the hammering. The guy is clearly immoral and has damaged people's privacy and the world wide web forever. $500mil doesn't suddenly make that ok, especially considering the charity is basically a quango.

Are you joking? You have got to be joking. What have you contributed to society that amounts to 1/100000th of Mark's recent contribution? You're going to sit here and write an internet comment about how a guy who just donated $500 million dollars to charity is evil because you don't like the way he handles privacy settings on the $100 billion dollar company that he started single-handedly

You have some serious soul-searching to do, guy. Go out there and build something, or do anything useful with your life. Then come back and tell me who you think is good or evil.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#85

Post by nixy » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 2:26 PM UTC

natural219 wrote: post #84

meaty wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well he deserves the hammering. The guy is clearly immoral and has damaged people's privacy and the world wide web forever. $500mil doesn't suddenly make that ok, especially considering the charity is basically a quango.

Are you joking? You have got to be joking. What have you contributed to society that amounts to 1/100000th of Mark's recent contribution? You're going to sit here and write an internet comment about how a guy who just donated $500 million dollars to charity is evil because you don't like the way he handles privacy settings on the $100 billion dollar company that he started single-handedly You have some serious soul-s…

Do you have to be successful in order to be allowed an opinion?

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#86

Post by natural219 » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 2:33 PM UTC

nixy wrote: post #85

natural219 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you joking? You have got to be joking. What have you contributed to society that amounts to 1/100000th of Mark's recent contribution? You're going to sit here and write an internet comment about how a guy who just donated $500 million dollars to charity is evil because you don't like the way he handles privacy settings on the $100 billion dollar company that he started single-handedly You have some serious soul-s…

Do you have to be successful in order to be allowed an opinion?

If your opinion is as boneheaded as the parent's, then yes.

Edit: This was uncalled for, and I apologize.

What I mean to say is that anybody who builds things of value for a living quickly develops a more nuanced sense of morality than the parent displays. I do think that, when talking of the moral character of great people, the experience of having gone through the struggle yourself is rich with perspective. The fact that the parent deems Mark "clearly immoral" because Mark changed the parent's Facebook UI is absolutely the most revolting type of perspective in my eyes.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#87

Post by meaty » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 2:38 PM UTC

natural219 wrote: post #84

meaty wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well he deserves the hammering. The guy is clearly immoral and has damaged people's privacy and the world wide web forever. $500mil doesn't suddenly make that ok, especially considering the charity is basically a quango.

Are you joking? You have got to be joking. What have you contributed to society that amounts to 1/100000th of Mark's recent contribution? You're going to sit here and write an internet comment about how a guy who just donated $500 million dollars to charity is evil because you don't like the way he handles privacy settings on the $100 billion dollar company that he started single-handedly You have some serious soul-s…

I stand by my point.

I'll have done net more positive things by sitting on my arse doing nothing, which I haven't been.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#88

Post by hnriot » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 2:45 PM UTC

natural219 wrote: post #86

nixy wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have to be successful in order to be allowed an opinion?

If your opinion is as boneheaded as the parent's, then yes. Edit: This was uncalled for, and I apologize. What I mean to say is that anybody who builds things of value for a living quickly develops a more nuanced sense of morality than the parent displays. I do think that, when talking of the moral character of great people, the experience of having gone through the struggle yourself is rich with perspective. The fac…

You've just lost any credibility by saying this.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#89

Post by jwoah12 » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 2:52 PM UTC

MikeAmelung wrote: post #29

oscilloscope wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A large social network called Facebook.

Still $11 below IPO. So much wealth!

Did you really just set the IPO price as your baseline for wealth? I have news for you, the IPO wasn't 0, it was $104bil. Still quite a bit of wealth.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#90

Post by natural219 » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 2:52 PM UTC

hnriot wrote: post #88

natural219 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your opinion is as boneheaded as the parent's, then yes. Edit: This was uncalled for, and I apologize. What I mean to say is that anybody who builds things of value for a living quickly develops a more nuanced sense of morality than the parent displays. I do think that, when talking of the moral character of great people, the experience of having gone through the struggle yourself is rich with perspective. The fac…

You've just lost any credibility by saying this.

You're right. Thanks.

People like the parent bring out the worst in me -- people who judge others without lifting a finger. I'm not sure what I was trying to accomplish with the name-calling, though.