Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

tech.fortune.cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 147 posts

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#101

Post by polyfractal »

meaty wrote: post #96
bicx wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banks use your money for interest and loans (or at least a percentage) and you get "free" money in the form of credit cards and interest. Facebook uses your data for ads in exchange for "free" services. You can always opt out if you don't like it. Store your data in your mattress. :)

That I do. People know how banks operate and they are regulated. The same is not true for Facebook, which makes negative policy decisions all the time.

Yes, because the recent financial crisis proved how much we know about banks and their dealings.

Banks are one of the most opaque industries and are constantly devising (ingenious) ways around regulation.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#102

Post by powertower »

espadagroup wrote: post #99
powertower wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did I read this wrong or did it not say 500. MILLION. dollars? This isn't directed at Zuck or Facebook, or anything. Because I really don't know him. But regarding your shock about the dollar amount... Keep in mind that it's incredibly easy to be generous when you are at the top. It's actually so easy, that it's almost effortless . There really is a difference between a man that writes a check that makes no differe…

First, "throws money away", really? It's going toward something good, helping real people's lives. Second it's fine if you want to measure someone's charitableness by their personal sacrifice, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with measuring it by the impact of their actions. In your scenario I would say the money being thrown away would have much more of an impact.

I've long stopped believing that money helps improve the world. People do.

If you throw money at a problem, often times you create a dependency on that aid, and other times you just end up with even more mouths to feed.

It's not that monetary aid is always 100% ineffective. It's just that once you tally up the bad and the good, you're left with something that's in the red.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#103

Post by habosa »

powertower wrote: post #94
epaga wrote: post #61

I'm getting a bit miffed at the comments talking about this being a "PR move" or helpful for a "tax break". Did I read this wrong or did it not say 500. MILLION. dollars? The cynicism must be pretty darn strong to try and explain that away by anything other than Zuck wanting to do some good with his shares and money. We should be applauding it, not over-analyzing it for how it benefits him.

> Did I read this wrong or did it not say 500. MILLION. dollars? This isn't directed at Zuck or Facebook, or anything. Because I really don't know him. But regarding your shock about the dollar amount... Keep in mind that it's incredibly easy to be generous when you are at the top. It's actually so easy, that it's almost effortless . There really is a difference between a man that writes a check that makes no differe…

500 Million is not effortless for anyone on planet earth. Mark Zuckerberg has somewhere in the range of 7 to 10 billion dollars. 500M is somewhere between 5 and 7 percent of his net worth. I realize that money has less marginal utility to billionaires, but donating 5 to 7 percent of what you've earned in your whole life is nothing to sneeze at. I'm pretty sure Mark thought about this decision as he has never been known to throw money around, and for you to dismiss it as "effortless" is fairly absurd.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#104

Post by powertower »

gameshot911 wrote: post #100
powertower wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did I read this wrong or did it not say 500. MILLION. dollars? This isn't directed at Zuck or Facebook, or anything. Because I really don't know him. But regarding your shock about the dollar amount... Keep in mind that it's incredibly easy to be generous when you are at the top. It's actually so easy, that it's almost effortless . There really is a difference between a man that writes a check that makes no differe…

Why not celebrate both? Beyond that, even if we accept the premise that it's easier for Zucker to give away $500MM than someone with little to donate a fraction of that amount, the money will absolutely have a great net impact on society as a whole. Isn't that contribution to the betterment of all worth a major celebration? I think part of the problem is that it's hard to conceptualize what sort of impact donations a…

If you think the aid is effective, you can celebrate that.

But (for example purposes - not targeting Zuck) why would you celebrate a person who is using a donation as a tax write-off?

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#105

Post by [deleted] »

powertower wrote: post #94
epaga wrote: post #61

I'm getting a bit miffed at the comments talking about this being a "PR move" or helpful for a "tax break". Did I read this wrong or did it not say 500. MILLION. dollars? The cynicism must be pretty darn strong to try and explain that away by anything other than Zuck wanting to do some good with his shares and money. We should be applauding it, not over-analyzing it for how it benefits him.

> Did I read this wrong or did it not say 500. MILLION. dollars? This isn't directed at Zuck or Facebook, or anything. Because I really don't know him. But regarding your shock about the dollar amount... Keep in mind that it's incredibly easy to be generous when you are at the top. It's actually so easy, that it's almost effortless . There really is a difference between a man that writes a check that makes no differe…

[deleted]

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#106

Post by avjinder »

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 incredibly expensive to run and maintain. How else do you expect Facebook to make money except by showing ads so that they may keep on providing you with a free service with a 99% uptime? They have earned the money they are making. It's not like they sat around twiddling their thumbs and suddenly Facebook's massively complex architecture just assembled itself and started working. They've solved massive scalability problems and its evident when you use the website. So, stop cribbing about those pesky ads when you're being provided with a free service. The relationship you have with Facebook is symbiotic. If you know better, let's hear your ideas for better and less intrusive ways to make money from Facebook?

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#108

Post by meaty »

polyfractal wrote: post #101
meaty wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That I do. People know how banks operate and they are regulated. The same is not true for Facebook, which makes negative policy decisions all the time.

Yes, because the recent financial crisis proved how much we know about banks and their dealings. Banks are one of the most opaque industries and are constantly devising (ingenious) ways around regulation.

Yes and that is with regulation. Imagine what Facebook is like.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#109

Post by joey_muller »

epaga wrote: post #61

I'm getting a bit miffed at the comments talking about this being a "PR move" or helpful for a "tax break". Did I read this wrong or did it not say 500. MILLION. dollars? The cynicism must be pretty darn strong to try and explain that away by anything other than Zuck wanting to do some good with his shares and money. We should be applauding it, not over-analyzing it for how it benefits him.

Agreed. Who cares if there is a tax break for this. I think this donation is well-timed and I would like to see more "rich" corporations follow suit. I was initially thinking he might do something for Sandy Hook. There is a community torn to shreds that will never be the same. Here is a list of ways we can all help now: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/12/14/connectic...

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#110

Post by powertower »

habosa wrote: post #103
powertower wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did I read this wrong or did it not say 500. MILLION. dollars? This isn't directed at Zuck or Facebook, or anything. Because I really don't know him. But regarding your shock about the dollar amount... Keep in mind that it's incredibly easy to be generous when you are at the top. It's actually so easy, that it's almost effortless . There really is a difference between a man that writes a check that makes no differe…

500 Million is not effortless for anyone on planet earth. Mark Zuckerberg has somewhere in the range of 7 to 10 billion dollars. 500M is somewhere between 5 and 7 percent of his net worth. I realize that money has less marginal utility to billionaires, but donating 5 to 7 percent of what you've earned in your whole life is nothing to sneeze at. I'm pretty sure Mark thought about this decision as he has never been kno…

I guess you didn't belive me when I said my post had nothing to do with Zuck or Facebook.
Post reply on HN