6 ms·

This Startup Entrepreneur Lives on Minimum Wage So He Has More Money to Donate

51 points by alexflint 10y ago

plandis 10y ago
This is awesome! But I do wonder what his safety nets look like. For instance, I grew up poor so even though I have a good job and have saved a lot I'm always in fear of getting knocked back down to where I was. How does he save for retirement (or is he even)? What about medical bills? What about your car simply breaking down? Can you actually pay for that? It seems like he has put everyone else over his own well being which is definitely commendable. I certainly couldn't do that.
- duncan_bayne 10y ago
  > It seems like he has put everyone else over his own well being which is definitely commendable. It's really not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_egoism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_egoism
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - kevinwang 10y ago
    I don't understand your point. What does that wikipedia page say anything about what's commendable?
    - duncan_bayne 10y ago
      I meant that I think that putting others ahead of yourself isn't, in and of itself, commendable. I posted the Wikipedia link as an example of that sort of morality.
  - joe563323 10y ago
    What do you mean ?
- Xodarap 10y ago
  Thanks for the question – this is Ben (subject of the article). I think living on minimum wage is a nice thing for journalists to put as a headline, but I tend to shy away from it as actual advice. If you are able to donate $100,000 per year as an engineer and then your car breaks down, making you unable to get to your job, what then? Are you really going to not fix your car and therefore quit your job, just so you can save $500 on the repair and meet some arbitrary spending target? That would be pretty stupid. The [giving what we can](https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/join/ https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/join/) pledge is that you will donate 10% of your income, and I encourage people to take that since 10% is a reasonable amount to donate (particularly for the sort of person who is reading hacker news).
  - throwawayit 10y ago
    I mean, people have lost their lives fighting for our country, they're not around to brag. Yet, they gave the ultimate sacrifice. Take a more common example, ordinary people they don't have 100k a year, as you say, to donate, forget 10%. If you're making < 40k, its just not manageable to donate much. Not 10%. Maybe not even 1%. Many people are barely making ends meet. So understand, when I make claims you may not be in touch with reality and seem to overly simplify it to your own predicament, that in itself is kind of solipsistic. So people may nod and say 'yeah, uh huh', but have you realized, sometimes sacrifice isn't always advertised? It isn't always done through money? It'd be an improvement to acknowledge, even for the sake of a qualifier, that people dedicate themselves to serving higher causes and never have engineer-tier paychecks. Other people take jobs that pay less. They do jobs that pay nothing, because they want to take apply change on the cause they choose. That can be worth more than donating. So while I appreciate what you're doing, if altruism is truly your goal, instead of showing off your own ethics and morals, shine the spot light on unnoticed people who themselves are sacrificing.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
meira 10y ago
This is not charity, is a VC fund for what he wants, and we barely know what he wants. He is not a philantropist, but a wannabe Gates or Zuckerberg (that aren't either, just billionares spending billions).
- asdffdsaasdf1 10y ago
  No, it's not a charity. But he's giving away all his money to charity..? How is that not philanthropic? How are gates or zuckerberg not philanthropists?
  - meira 10y ago
    Show me people that are directly helped by these "philantropists" and I'll tell you if I think they are doing "charity" or not. Charity like internet.org is scam.
    - Xodarap 10y ago
      Thanks for the question – this is Ben (subject of OP). I listed some causes I think are valuable in the interview, but in general I think GiveWell and ACE are good evaluators: * http://www.givewell.org/ http://www.givewell.org/ * http://www.animalcharityevaluators.org/ http://www.animalcharityevaluators.org/ For each charity they recommend, they have estimates of number of lives saved per dollar.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
asdffdsaasdf1 10y ago
Awesome, very commendable.
throwawayit 10y ago
So the subject of the article claims to be an altruist. And gets to post about how moral and pure he is. I'm left with the perception this person the subject isn't calibrated with the plight we're all facing just to get by. A lot of us sacrifice ourselves. Unlike some, we're humble about it. People go into the public sector and get paid less. People join the army and risk their lives on minimum wage. I think gratitude is something we all need more of. It rarely ever deserves to go to the one's who advertise for it for their own benefit. Boasting is the opposite of altruism. An account signing up on HN just to defend and congratulate the subject (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=asdffdsaasdf1 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=asdffdsaasdf1). I hope its not the subject of the author using a sock puppet.
arcamp 10y ago
This is something I think a lot about as well. How do you choose how much to give? https://medium.com/@Agoraforgood/how-do-you-choose-how-much-to-give-64ba8daa61ac#.ppezzxi1v https://medium.com/@Agoraforgood/how-do-you-choose-how-much-...

51 points by alexflint 10y ago

This is awesome! But I do wonder what his safety nets look like. For instance, I grew up poor so even though I have a good job and have saved a lot I'm always in fear of getting knocked back down to where I was. How does he save for retirement (or is he even)? What about medical bills? What about your car simply breaking down? Can you actually pay for that? It seems like he has put everyone else over his own well being which is definitely commendable. I certainly couldn't do that.

duncan_bayne 10y ago
> It seems like he has put everyone else over his own well being which is definitely commendable. It's really not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_egoism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_egoism
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- kevinwang 10y ago
  I don't understand your point. What does that wikipedia page say anything about what's commendable?
  - duncan_bayne 10y ago
    I meant that I think that putting others ahead of yourself isn't, in and of itself, commendable. I posted the Wikipedia link as an example of that sort of morality.
- joe563323 10y ago
  What do you mean ?
Xodarap 10y ago
Thanks for the question – this is Ben (subject of the article). I think living on minimum wage is a nice thing for journalists to put as a headline, but I tend to shy away from it as actual advice. If you are able to donate $100,000 per year as an engineer and then your car breaks down, making you unable to get to your job, what then? Are you really going to not fix your car and therefore quit your job, just so you can save $500 on the repair and meet some arbitrary spending target? That would be pretty stupid. The [giving what we can](https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/join/ https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/join/) pledge is that you will donate 10% of your income, and I encourage people to take that since 10% is a reasonable amount to donate (particularly for the sort of person who is reading hacker news).
- throwawayit 10y ago
  I mean, people have lost their lives fighting for our country, they're not around to brag. Yet, they gave the ultimate sacrifice. Take a more common example, ordinary people they don't have 100k a year, as you say, to donate, forget 10%. If you're making < 40k, its just not manageable to donate much. Not 10%. Maybe not even 1%. Many people are barely making ends meet. So understand, when I make claims you may not be in touch with reality and seem to overly simplify it to your own predicament, that in itself is kind of solipsistic. So people may nod and say 'yeah, uh huh', but have you realized, sometimes sacrifice isn't always advertised? It isn't always done through money? It'd be an improvement to acknowledge, even for the sake of a qualifier, that people dedicate themselves to serving higher causes and never have engineer-tier paychecks. Other people take jobs that pay less. They do jobs that pay nothing, because they want to take apply change on the cause they choose. That can be worth more than donating. So while I appreciate what you're doing, if altruism is truly your goal, instead of showing off your own ethics and morals, shine the spot light on unnoticed people who themselves are sacrificing.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

meira 10y ago

This is not charity, is a VC fund for what he wants, and we barely know what he wants. He is not a philantropist, but a wannabe Gates or Zuckerberg (that aren't either, just billionares spending billions).

asdffdsaasdf1 10y ago
No, it's not a charity. But he's giving away all his money to charity..? How is that not philanthropic? How are gates or zuckerberg not philanthropists?
- meira 10y ago
  Show me people that are directly helped by these "philantropists" and I'll tell you if I think they are doing "charity" or not. Charity like internet.org is scam.
  - Xodarap 10y ago
    Thanks for the question – this is Ben (subject of OP). I listed some causes I think are valuable in the interview, but in general I think GiveWell and ACE are good evaluators: * http://www.givewell.org/ http://www.givewell.org/ * http://www.animalcharityevaluators.org/ http://www.animalcharityevaluators.org/ For each charity they recommend, they have estimates of number of lives saved per dollar.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

asdffdsaasdf1 10y ago

Awesome, very commendable.

throwawayit 10y ago

So the subject of the article claims to be an altruist. And gets to post about how moral and pure he is. I'm left with the perception this person the subject isn't calibrated with the plight we're all facing just to get by. A lot of us sacrifice ourselves. Unlike some, we're humble about it. People go into the public sector and get paid less. People join the army and risk their lives on minimum wage. I think gratitude is something we all need more of. It rarely ever deserves to go to the one's who advertise for it for their own benefit. Boasting is the opposite of altruism. An account signing up on HN just to defend and congratulate the subject (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=asdffdsaasdf1 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=asdffdsaasdf1). I hope its not the subject of the author using a sock puppet.

arcamp 10y ago

This is something I think a lot about as well. How do you choose how much to give? https://medium.com/@Agoraforgood/how-do-you-choose-how-much-to-give-64ba8daa61ac#.ppezzxi1v https://medium.com/@Agoraforgood/how-do-you-choose-how-much-...