A letter to our daughter • Hacker News Board

Re: A letter to our daughter

#61

Post by ciconia » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:00 PM UTC

6stringmerc wrote: post #35

Okay, maybe it's just me, but after reading the introduction and getting through the list of extremely difficult "Can we..." challenges followed by the "We must..." directives, the first quote that popped into my head was a variation of “a poor man is crazy, but a rich man is just ‘eccentric.’” I get the desire to solve the world's ills, of society's shortcomings, of essentially fixing the thousands of years of evolu…

Whether or not the letter is narcissistic, one has to admire their initiative. It is not, unfortunately, the obvious thing to do, and they deserve to be applauded for that.

Whatever personal faults the man has, I'd argue this kind of philanthropy more than makes up for it.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#62

Post by msoad » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:01 PM UTC

This is really cool. I kind of missed notes in Facebook. How do you create one?

Re: A letter to our daughter

#63

Post by ryandrake » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:01 PM UTC

Something's always bugged me about relying on philanthropy as a source of funding the public good, as opposed to the public funding the public good through taxation and the democratic process: In the former case, the public doesn't really have much of a say about where the help goes. We must rely on the judgment (and personal values) of a few rich people and hope they pick charities that maximize the benefit.

Would the outcome be better or worse if we had, say, a 99% tax bracket at >$N million, and let the public decide the best way to deploy that funding via the ballot box? Would that process better align with the values of a democratic society? Or would we just get more corporate welfare, bombers and aircraft carriers?

I'm not ragging on philanthropy--it's awesome that some of these billionaires understand the meaning of "enough" and choose to give away their fortunes to worthy causes. But is it best for society to leave it to a few lucky 'elite' to judge what is and isn't a worthy cause?

Re: A letter to our daughter

#64

Post by rimantas » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:02 PM UTC

aswanson wrote: post #50

I have had some problems with the way his company operates sometimes but I can't find a single thing he said I don't emphatically agree with here. Hat tip, Mark Z.

I find that I don't agree with the whole thing. It just seems like a PR stunt to me :( Why the fuck are you posting a letter to your daughter across the globe? Why do you have a letter at all, can you just say it to her sometime when she is actually able to understand. I guess for him completely different rules apply, but my wife and I don't even post any pictures of our daughter online nor are we sharing anything about her. She should be able to decide herself, what she wants to put there, when she is able to…

Re: A letter to our daughter

#65

Post by munchbunny » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:03 PM UTC

marknutter wrote: post #30

nugget wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I give Mark and Priscilla a lot of credit for this. There's a big difference between 50% and 99%. There's a big difference between leaving your children a few hundred million and many billions. They have certainly exemplified the challenge to ''put your money where your mouth is''. Having said that, the first thing I thought of was the tax implications. If the shares were to eventually be sold (but not donated), the…

> Nonetheless the big winner here is the group of causes they donate to but it comes at the expense of a significant amount of tax revenue Here is the world's smallest fiddle...

In this case it really does just sound like "the tax incentive is working as intended".

Re: A letter to our daughter

#66

Post by nbardy » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:03 PM UTC

Reading this is impossible to not to think of Bill Gates. Someone who realized the impact his money can have. Many people in this industry have been influenced by the actions of Gates, especially in the tech community. As a 20 something the money I make certainty pales in comparison to that of Gates or Zuckerberg, but even at a low rate for the tech industry it is much above that of my friends, many of who have worked much harder to get to where they are. It is difficult to be in a position to give help and refuse. Perhaps the effect Gates can have on the minds of the wealthy will be even greater than the already vast contributions he has produced.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#67

Post by sp332 » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:04 PM UTC

zobzu wrote: post #47

When I read this stuff (as in the letter) I just think one thing: You guys are so full of yourselves.

These opinions really are going to have an influence on the entire industry.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#68

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:05 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #63

Something's always bugged me about relying on philanthropy as a source of funding the public good, as opposed to the public funding the public good through taxation and the democratic process: In the former case, the public doesn't really have much of a say about where the help goes. We must rely on the judgment (and personal values) of a few rich people and hope they pick charities that maximize the benefit. Would t…

> Would the outcome be better or worse if we had, say, a 99% tax bracket at >$N million, and let the public decide the best way to deploy that funding via the ballot box?

If we had that and still had charitable deductions, I suspect more public goods would be funded by charity rather than public decision-making then is now the case, since the marginal cost of charity giving would be much lower.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#69

Post by Bedon292 » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:05 PM UTC

nugget wrote: post #28

prezjordan wrote: post #2

> We will give 99% of our Facebook shares -- currently about $45 billion -- during our lives to advance this mission. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others. Ninety. Nine. Percent.

I give Mark and Priscilla a lot of credit for this. There's a big difference between 50% and 99%. There's a big difference between leaving your children a few hundred million and many billions. They have certainly exemplified the challenge to ''put your money where your mouth is''. Having said that, the first thing I thought of was the tax implications. If the shares were to eventually be sold (but not donated), the…

I might be wrong, but didn't he already pay the massive tax bill for all of the stock options? Meaning all of those stocks would be taxed at long term capital gains rates, not at the high rates you are saying here. I believe his Federal taxes on sales would be 15% of current price - IPO price so approximately 4.5B not 13-15B at this time. That is also assuming Facebook continues to be dominant and doesn't go the way of every other social networking site before it, but that is a different issue.

And either way, the charitable organizations deserve to be supported and will do good for society, and they get to pick how it is used. Which doesn't seem like a bad thing, when the Federal government can barely agree on any budget at all.

Re: A letter to our daughter

#70

Post by throwaway999888 » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:05 PM UTC

> Today your mother and I are committing to spend our lives doing our small part to help solve these challenges. I will continue to serve as Facebook's CEO for many, many years to come, but these issues are too important to wait until you or we are older to begin this work. By starting at a young age, we hope to see compounding benefits throughout our lives.

In other words, I'm getting in on this philanthropy thing at a much younger age than Bill Gates.