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Jack Dorsey gives $1B to fund global Covid-19 relief
- xkjkls 7y agoProbably the best time, since Square stock is gonna struggle a lot after these next two quarters
- pazimzadeh 7y agoWhy is that?
- likeabbas 7y agoSquare's business model is to allow small, local businesses the ability to let people pay with a credit card easily. They service a lot of restaurants and food trucks. These types of businesses are not doing to be doing well for the immediate future.
- blondin 7y agoconfused by parent comment as well. square is the payment solution and foursquare the location-based app right? not sure why square would be impacted if we are all buying online or through apps.
- sgc 7y agoBecause they focus on point of sale, which is taking a beating.
- holtalanm 7y agosquare also has a large presence in online payment processing, though. not sure what % of their total revenue that is, but just saying, they're not 100% focused on point of sale.
- xkjkls 7y agoYeah, but 80% of it is point of sale, and I'm not sure they even make a profit on all their other efforts yet.
- jurassic 7y agoA big chunk of their business is point-of-sale.
- xkjkls 7y agoAlmost all if you read their 10K: https://s21.q4cdn.com/114365585/files/doc_financials/2019/q4/Square-2019-10-K.pdf https://s21.q4cdn.com/114365585/files/doc_financials/2019/q4...
- hckr_news 7y agoCashApp is still quite useful. Although with people indoors there may be a decline of its usage in that there will be no reason to transfer money between people.
- gnicholas 7y agoI joined CashApp to make use of the coffee shop boost. After that disappeared, I tried adding several other boosts. Each one magically disappeared right before I tried to use it. Uninstalled. If I need to transfer money I have several other options, including "cash," a well-established p2p solution.
- anthonybullard 7y agoInteresting time to choose cash, given its generally considered unsanitary. Maybe time for a different type of money laundering.
- gnicholas 7y agoI don't need any of these right now since I'm not bill-splitting these days. But in ordinary times, cash is just fine. There need not be an app for everything, and the Cash app made itself useless when they started playing games with the boosts (the only benefit to using it).
- chipotle_coyote 7y agoFor those of us who are still bill-splitting (if only delivery and pickup orders in the present moment, granted), the Cash app is still useful for, well, that. That's the first reason I picked it up years ago and I honestly didn't know they had those "boosts" until very recently!
- intuitionist 7y agoIt’s already 42% off its 2020 high, not saying it won’t fall further but it’s not like investors aren’t aware that Square revenues are gonna take a big hit.
- haunter 7y agoWonder why are minority boys ignored constantly? I'm curious as there have been so many research about this. For a lot of boys it's a bigger uphill battle https://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2015/05/07/african-american-men-the-other-stem-minority https://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2015/05/... https://www.ft.com/content/3b2509f2-fda2-11e8-aebf-99e208d3e521 https://www.ft.com/content/3b2509f2-fda2-11e8-aebf-99e208d3e... https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/08/why-men-are-the-new-college-minority/536103/ https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/08/why-me... https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/11/gender-education-gap/546677/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/11/gender-...
- maallooc 7y agoBecause it's not hip enough to support them. UBI? hip. girls' education? hip. girls' health? hip. boys? uh uh, not hip enough! We don't need support for future predators.
- shinryuu 7y agoI believe the focus is on girls health and education is in 3rd world countries. The reason for picking this is very likely because it is rated highly by project drawdown https://drawdown.org/sectors/health-and-education https://drawdown.org/sectors/health-and-education
- jasonv 7y agoCuriously, drawdown.org has no RSS feed...
- forgotmylogin2 7y agoSpending $1B on sexism is incredible commitment to being a piece of shit. You almost have to respect it.
- nostromo 7y agoI've worked with a number of education non-profits in America. What's interesting is quite a few of them will target girls specifically; despite the fact that by most measures girls outperform boys at all levels of education in America.
- urs 7y agoThere's something amusing to seeing $1B doled out over a Google Spreadsheet while some charities a microfraction of the size will spend thousands of dollars on a custom website. Spreadsheets become SaaS products and SaaS products become spreadsheets in a never-ending loop. It'll be fun to see where this goes!
- emeerson 7y agoWhat's remarkable is how this is a clear case study of the amount of wealth destroyed _by gutting government_ If I were to try to be pithy: Capitalism destroyed by the incompetency of libertarian ideals.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- awaythrower 7y agoThis is an inconvenient fact because most HNers tend to be wealthy or upper-middle class, first-world and myopic to their limited filter bubbles... and so utopian anarcho-capitalism and Austrian school economics seems meritocratic, functional, justified and superior to everything else.
- enilakla 7y agoAssuming that many people are of Austrian school of thought here and thus brush this 'inconvenient fact' off seems ridiculous.
- icebraining 7y agoI usually vote for "far-left" parties, yet I have no idea how Dorsey giving $1B away "is a clear case study of the amount of wealth destroyed _by gutting government_", so maybe the downvoters simple don't think emeerson has made a good and clear point.
- emeerson 7y agoTo clarify my thinking: defunding Govt' pandemic preparedness became a forcing function for the individually wealthy to deploy private capital with much higher $$$ cost. Point taken that its a stretch of the imagination.
- anm89 7y agoI honestly can not even parse out what the general direction of your argument is here.
- nostromo 7y agoWhy is this an LLC and not a 501c? Can someone comment on if this is truly charitable in nature? Or something else? edit: thanks for the alert on mixing up my acronyms
- wtvanhest 7y agoI'm not an expert in this, but maybe the LLC is easier to setup and since it doesn't have fundraising, the money isn't taxable so it doesn't need to be a 403b. In other words, its more like a trust than a non-profit. To expand, non-profits are created to raise money for a cause, not just give it away.
- KerryJones 7y ago403b is a tax shelter, similar to a 401K... LLC is a corporate structure, more in line with C-corp. Maybe you meant 501c? There are a lot of articles out there arguing that non-profits are pretty heavily restricted and to make strong change you need a for-profit company, probably related to the rise of "Impact Investing"
- jdmichal 7y agoI believe the only difference would be whether income is taxable or not. If there is no intended income for this fund -- that is, it's completely prefunded by the founder -- then there's no advantage to jump through the hoops that are necessary to get 403b status. That status is not freely handed out to everyone who walks up and claims their a non-profit. There's quite a bit of work that goes into it.
- gamblor956 7y agoAn LLC can be a non-profit now, so long as it elects to be taxed as a corporation for federal income tax purposes. Based on the very brief description provided, it appears to have a charitable intent but it's not clear if it will be a true standalone charity or a private foundation.
- sjburt 7y agoAssuming you mean 501c and not 403b (a type of retirement plan), it's because you need to have the IRS approve your 501c status before you can advertise as one. They also have a large number of restrictions.
- csomar 7y agoIf I got this right, he is not donating actual $$ but his shares are transferred to this new entity "Start Small" which is not even a non-profit but an LLC.
- diggan 7y agoYeah, that seems strange. If your motive is really to provide relief for people and not focus on getting profits, why would you do that with an entity that is used for profit motives? I'm not from or in the US, so might misunderstand what a LLC is, but could someone provide some reasoning why you would want to do this with a LLC instead of non-profit? Edit: thanks y'all for your answers, I didn't think to check the rest of his Twitter timeline to see if he already answered that question.
- wallflower 7y agoGetting 501c(3) status can take months if not years. Most small non-profits start off incubated in a larger non-profit that acts as their fiscal sponsor. Even if they had an existing non-profit, this might go against the mission/budget/aims of the existing organization.
- hkmurakami 7y agoAllows more flexibility, less disclosure, no forced distributions annually, etc. Basically more control. Emerson Collective (Laureen Jobs) is probably the most prominent example.
- hobofan 7y agoFrom his Twitter: > Why is #startsmall a LLC? This segments and dedicates my shares to these causes, and provides flexibility. Grants will be made from Start Small Foundation or the LLC directly based on the beneficiary org. All transfers, sales, and grants will be made public in tracking sheet. Private + non-profit combinations are not uncommon. I'm not sure about the specifics in the US, but getting the status as a non-profit acknowledged is also a PITA in some jurisdictions, especially if he dedicates part of it to non-traditional causes like UBI.
- 7y ago
- renewiltord 7y agoQuick summary to preempt more of the repetitive HN comments caused by not clicking through and then scrolling: * It's an LLC instead of a 501c3 because that allows more flexibility. This is not unprecedented * It's $1B of his wealth in terms of Square stock * There is a spreadsheet to track where it's going https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-eGxq2mMoEGwgSpNVL5j2sa6ToojZUZ-Zun8h2oBAR4/htmlview https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-eGxq2mMoEGwgSpNVL5j... * The order of operations is COVID-19, then girl's health and education, and UBI * It's 28% of his wealth
- quickthrower2 7y agoDoes this mean selling the shares now to get $1B cash or they keep the shares floating around and sell them as they need cash?
- cynix 7y agoSounds like he's giving the shares away, and it's up to the recipients to sell or hold.
- gnicholas 7y agoIt would be very surprising if he were selling shares and donating cash. There is a very large tax advantage to donating appreciated assets (you can deduct the current FMV of the shares, but you never have to recognize the appreciation as gain for income tax purposes). Whenever you hear about a donor giving $1M and funding a university library or something, assume the donor gave appreciated stock, art, or another asset.
- taneq 7y agoWhat would dumping $1B of stock do to the share price? I imagine it wouldn't be great.
- quickthrower2 7y agoDark pool?
- 7y ago
- luckydata 7y agoThis doesn't even start to address the amount of damage he has done to the US and to the world through his bad management at Twitter. He bears a large slice of responsibility in creating the situation we are in.
- gjs278 7y agolol oh no idiots were tricked on the blue bird page
- randomsearch 7y agoI think it does start to. Maybe it doesn’t entirely. But give the guy credit and let’s see where he goes with this.
- davidg109 7y agoGood grief some of the comments on here. Guy is donating 25% of his wealth. That's pretty f'n noble of someone.
- RobLach 7y agoThe concept of charity is arguably unethical, let alone noble.
- anm89 7y agoI'd love to hear this one.
- newen 7y agoSociety should be structured in such a way that charity is not needed. Given this, charity would be unethical because you are participating in, perpetuating, strengthening that system, and benefiting from that system from people worshipping you.
- missedthecue 7y ago>Society should be structured in such a way that charity is not needed. This is only possible in a world where there is no bottom rung of the ladder. That's impossible.
- joi_de_vivre 7y agoWhy can't we make an effort to raise the height of the bottom rung of the ladder? In the case that we did, wouldn't charity then be unnecessary?
- missedthecue 7y agoI didn't say it's not possible to raise the height. I said there always will be a bottom rung.
- Geee 7y agoThis seems kind of pointless when the Fed can just print 2 trillions out of thin air.
- FriendlyNormie 7y agoLet’s not pretend they did anything as difficult as printing that much money. They just added 2 trillion to a value in a database somewhere.
- quickthrower2 7y agoWell, they'd need a debit and a credit entry on two systems at least.
- anm89 7y agoDo you think that every dollar accounted for in the world is represented by a bill? Currency is not money. It's not even a major component of what money is by almost any definition.
- FriendlyNormie 7y agoEither they printed 2 trillion physical dollar bills or they didn’t. I’m saying they didn’t. I’m curious what imaginary comment it is you’re replying to.
- anm89 7y agoWhen people talk about printing money in an economic sense, they aren't talking about running a literal printing press. It is synonymous with increasing the money supply. In the lingo of modern economics adding a decimal to a database which results in increasing the money supply is phrased as printing money. In fact this is specifically what they are talking about in most cases, specifically not operating a physical printing press. When the original poster said they printed 2 trillion, he was not implying they physically printed anything.
- WheelsAtLarge 7y agoOk, this IS stepping up. 1B will make a difference. The big problem is that if distribution is not properly managed it will go to waste via people taking advantage of the situation. Giving away money responsibly is hard. We see it all the time.
- missedthecue 7y agoWhat is 1B going to do that the 2 point something trillion that the gov just spent can't?
- Infinitesimus 7y agoThey're not mutually exclusive. Extra money helps if its directed properly
- hirundo 7y agoI admire Gates more, for not just giving his money, but quitting his day job and giving his time. But Dorsey is young, he has time to increase his wealth more before stopping to wield it himself.
- seph-reed 7y agoI just feel like speaking my mind. It's a WIP. The idea of the patriarchy really took hold. It's convenient to believe that everything is the fault of monstrous men. Meanwhile many men never really wanted to be an oppressive alpha anyways, many just want to love and be loved; perhaps focus on their projects. It seemed like a win-win, softer men can just be themselves, no more oppression, who needs the dumb alphas anyways? But there's one big issue here: neither male nor female libido has changed. Women still get off harder when they feel it's their idea, that the man was the trophy. But to be honest with a woman is to be honest about the male libido, that it's not particularly difficult to hack into. So in order to really get a girls rocks off, you have to be able to hack her libido. Whatever her game is, you've got to know how to play it. Which means you'll have power over her, she's thinking about you, the more she think about you the more power you have, obsession, etc. And if you hurt her, it's oppression. She never wanted this! Pay no mind to the men she's hurt herself, for they set themselves up for it. But you worked to do this to her. I honestly think there's only one way to create equality and that's drugs that change our libidos to be more similar: A. For women: perhaps a drug that makes them simultaneously aroused and hyper-critical? B. For men: I don't know what it's like to be a woman. Women should design this drug. Feel free to replace the words "men" and "women" with top/bottom, dom/sub, masculine/feminine, or whatever non gender biased terms suit you, if that's what you like.
- patrec 7y agoNot normally a fan, but I think Dorsey should be given massive props for being one of the few ultra rich indviduals (or even companies) to try to actually meaningfully step up to the pandemic challenge. It's not just our governments and health authorities who have completely failed us, the response from extremely well resourced private parties and entities also has been extremely underwhelming. It's been clear for months now that Testing/Tracking/Masks are vital to efficiently deal with this, all are basically low tech. And yet no single Western country has adequate capacity or taken any remotely serious steps to obtain it and non-governmental actors have not significantly stepped in either.
- aaron695 7y agoIf he was serious he'd know to spend the money on Covid-19, and only that. Vanity projects like girl’s health and education, and UBI show he's just not serious about the current issues at hand. (These are low even without covid-19 and have a lot of funding already) Plus girls heath and education is best helped through helping pregnant mothers / with children up to 2 years. But that's science over feels.