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Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

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Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#131

Post by [deleted] »

debacle wrote: post #92
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.

If you go into a HN thread like this and expect someone to not shit all over someone giving away millions of dollars to charity, you haven't been paying attention. Unless HN is navel-gazing, negativity is the default.

[deleted]

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#132

Post by dclusin »

SeanLuke wrote: post #126
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.

You view charity in terms of the benefit to the recipient. I think that's the exact wrong way to view it. I think charity should be measured by how much it hurts to give. $500 million is about 1/20 of Mark Zuckerberg's estimated wealth. He could donate $8.4 billion and still be a billionaire. He could donate $9 billion and still be set for the rest of his life. $500 million is almost inconsequential to him. Compare t…

The present value of the securities is certainly one aspect of measuring the value of said securities to Mr. Zuckerberg. Another aspect would also be the control of his company that he's giving up (since it's primarily stock I assume). The second one I believe is one that would interest Mr. Zuckerberg more than the dollar value of said securities. But even then, it probably amounts to a negligible steak in the company as well.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#133

Post by zemanel »

debacle wrote: post #92
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.

If you go into a HN thread like this and expect someone to not shit all over someone giving away millions of dollars to charity, you haven't been paying attention. Unless HN is navel-gazing, negativity is the default.

Wouldn't say negative by default but inquisitive, which i believe is a good thing.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#134

Post by jfoster »

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.

Because in this scenario (facebook, not WW2) the individual facebook users are the ones who stand to lose something in most arguments against Facebook's model.

So if a minority objects to facebook, I would suggest they just not use facebook. In most cases that means facebook won't have a negative impact on them.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#135

Post by deelowe »

saurik wrote: post #50

I'm somewhat confused. If $500 million in shares are donated by Zuckerberg, does that mean a tax write-off of that amount? Also, to verify, the foundation would have to liquidize the shares, right? That kind of instant sell-off would cause massive drops in price... I really hate to ask this (as I honestly don't have anything against Zuckerberg, and really don't feel that "rich people" or "all companies" are evil or a…

People keep talking about charitable tax write-offs as if there's some sort of profitable benefit to them. Either I'm daft, or there are a lot of people out there who are very confused about the us tax code.

How does this in any way benefit Mark? He can only write off a portion of his income (yes, even if he carries it forward). So, he's getting back what, like ~40% of this back as a deduction(depending on what bracket he's in)? It's still 250M dollars out of his bank account. There's no math that makes this work our in his favor. (Is there some kind of trick here that I'm missing like reducing your income, claiming the deduction as unrealized losses, and then hedging against the stock price decreasing over time? Sort of like a short?) I just don't see it.

What am I missing here about the tax code that results in any charitable tax write off resulting in a net benefit for the individual? Seriously, I'd love to know how to take advantage of this loophole myself.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#136

Post by pablasso »

SeanLuke wrote: post #126
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.

You view charity in terms of the benefit to the recipient. I think that's the exact wrong way to view it. I think charity should be measured by how much it hurts to give. $500 million is about 1/20 of Mark Zuckerberg's estimated wealth. He could donate $8.4 billion and still be a billionaire. He could donate $9 billion and still be set for the rest of his life. $500 million is almost inconsequential to him. Compare t…

It doesn't hurt him as much as the widow, but taxes or not $500 million will do a whole lot more than $5000.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#138

Post by TimJRobinson »

SeanLuke wrote: post #126
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.

You view charity in terms of the benefit to the recipient. I think that's the exact wrong way to view it. I think charity should be measured by how much it hurts to give. $500 million is about 1/20 of Mark Zuckerberg's estimated wealth. He could donate $8.4 billion and still be a billionaire. He could donate $9 billion and still be set for the rest of his life. $500 million is almost inconsequential to him. Compare t…

You're falling prey to one of the biggest flaws in human psychology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game

This is a win-win scenario, the charity gets lots of money and he gets his name on a building and positive press. Yet you're turning it into a negative because you believe he gets more than he gives.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg donates $500 million

#139

Post by Tycho »

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…

I celebrate the former first.
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