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Money may be good when allocated fairly and productively, but "FU money" implies a sense of no obligation to society and in many respects is the motivating infl

by rooshdi 14y ago

Money may be good when allocated fairly and productively, but "FU money" implies a sense of no obligation to society and in many respects is the motivating influence behind much of the ill greed rampant today. F FU money.

ChuckMcM 14y ago
I believe the motivations behind things like the MacArthur 'genius' grants, the Nobel Prize, and Jefferson awards are a way to decouple a need to earn an income, from the work product. The theory goes that folks who don't have to 'work' for a living are more able to pursue their ideas, their art, and their passion. While it is true that for some folks that means they stop contributing to society at all, for others it opens up a tremendous opportunity to do great things. Because of that I don't share your interpretation that "FU money" is correlated at all with the sense of obligation. In my world view that obligation is intrinsic in the person and not affected by the source of income. When I see the good that the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is doing, the Lucille Packard Children's hospital, and others, I think that is pretty cool. [1] http://www.macfound.org/programs/fellows/ http://www.macfound.org/programs/fellows/ [2] http://www.nobelprize.org/ http://www.nobelprize.org/ [3] http://www.jeffersonawards.org/ http://www.jeffersonawards.org/
- Supreme 14y ago
  You might want to read up on the tax avoidance and political lobbying which the Gates foundation is involved in. See: http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Gates_Foundation_Critique http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Gates_Foundation_Critiq...
  - tatsuke95 14y ago
    >"tax avoidance and political lobbying" So with his vast fortune Gates ensures that he pays the minimum required in taxes (which may support policies he disagrees with), and instead spends money on policies he supports. That sounds perfectly rational.
    - Supreme 14y ago
      It depends on your perspective, no? If the perspective is that everything is disconnected and that you are more important than everyone else then yes, it does. If one can see that all is connected and everything affects everything else then it makes very little sense. Those taxes pay for poor people's sustenance when they cannot work. They pay for people who can't afford private healthcare. It's rational to help them because more national unrest means more stress, less productivity and, in the end, less likelyhood of people buying your products. The problem with being perfectly rational is that one may not consider the flaws in one's assumptions. Rationality is only as good as the information it's acting on and is not a silver bullet for making the right decisions. A blind man might conclude that while the sun may be hot at times, it's also extremely dark.
mkramlich 14y ago
That's not what the term meant. It meant you had enough money that if you had a job you could say "Fuck you!" to your boss, his boss, the CEO, etc. and then just walk out, never come back, and live pretty well the rest of your life. (Approximately speaking.) That you didn't have to worry about your resume anymore, career, networking, keeping skills up-to-date, you never had to say yes to anything to make a buck only if it interested you, etc. It did not necessarily mean you were saying that to your neighborhood, society, country, family, etc. Indeed it could enable to give more time and energy to those things. Now, what precisely that money amount is varies of course by person, depending on their needs and desires and situation.
- rooshdi 14y ago
  If it takes money to say fuck you to your boss, money's already fucked you.
  - Cacti 14y ago
    You're missing the point. The point is that FU money is the point at which you have enough that you can walk away from situations that you don't agree with without that impacting the rest of your financial life in any manner. In other words, it's retirement but at a younger age. It's not to say you don't walk away from situations you don't agree with before you have FU money. It's just that you're at a point where it won't impact the rest of your financial life. I don't really see why it has such a negative connotation. /edit I should add this term is usually used in terms of someone who has spent 20+ years in a career (and typically the same company) and is at loggerheads with upper management in an unresolvable situation and is about to get forced out over the situation. i.e., upper mgmt is doing something that person believe is wrong, unethical, etc.
    - rooshdi 14y ago
      I'm not arguing about the opportunities money provides in this capitalistic society. I'm arguing about the power it holds over some people's moral decisions.

by rooshdi 14y ago

ChuckMcM 14y ago

I believe the motivations behind things like the MacArthur 'genius' grants, the Nobel Prize, and Jefferson awards are a way to decouple a need to earn an income, from the work product. The theory goes that folks who don't have to 'work' for a living are more able to pursue their ideas, their art, and their passion. While it is true that for some folks that means they stop contributing to society at all, for others it opens up a tremendous opportunity to do great things. Because of that I don't share your interpretation that "FU money" is correlated at all with the sense of obligation. In my world view that obligation is intrinsic in the person and not affected by the source of income. When I see the good that the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is doing, the Lucille Packard Children's hospital, and others, I think that is pretty cool. [1] http://www.macfound.org/programs/fellows/ http://www.macfound.org/programs/fellows/ [2] http://www.nobelprize.org/ http://www.nobelprize.org/ [3] http://www.jeffersonawards.org/ http://www.jeffersonawards.org/

Supreme 14y ago
You might want to read up on the tax avoidance and political lobbying which the Gates foundation is involved in. See: http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Gates_Foundation_Critique http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Gates_Foundation_Critiq...
- tatsuke95 14y ago
  >"tax avoidance and political lobbying" So with his vast fortune Gates ensures that he pays the minimum required in taxes (which may support policies he disagrees with), and instead spends money on policies he supports. That sounds perfectly rational.
  - Supreme 14y ago
    It depends on your perspective, no? If the perspective is that everything is disconnected and that you are more important than everyone else then yes, it does. If one can see that all is connected and everything affects everything else then it makes very little sense. Those taxes pay for poor people's sustenance when they cannot work. They pay for people who can't afford private healthcare. It's rational to help them because more national unrest means more stress, less productivity and, in the end, less likelyhood of people buying your products. The problem with being perfectly rational is that one may not consider the flaws in one's assumptions. Rationality is only as good as the information it's acting on and is not a silver bullet for making the right decisions. A blind man might conclude that while the sun may be hot at times, it's also extremely dark.

mkramlich 14y ago

That's not what the term meant. It meant you had enough money that if you had a job you could say "Fuck you!" to your boss, his boss, the CEO, etc. and then just walk out, never come back, and live pretty well the rest of your life. (Approximately speaking.) That you didn't have to worry about your resume anymore, career, networking, keeping skills up-to-date, you never had to say yes to anything to make a buck only if it interested you, etc. It did not necessarily mean you were saying that to your neighborhood, society, country, family, etc. Indeed it could enable to give more time and energy to those things. Now, what precisely that money amount is varies of course by person, depending on their needs and desires and situation.

rooshdi 14y ago
If it takes money to say fuck you to your boss, money's already fucked you.
- Cacti 14y ago
  You're missing the point. The point is that FU money is the point at which you have enough that you can walk away from situations that you don't agree with without that impacting the rest of your financial life in any manner. In other words, it's retirement but at a younger age. It's not to say you don't walk away from situations you don't agree with before you have FU money. It's just that you're at a point where it won't impact the rest of your financial life. I don't really see why it has such a negative connotation. /edit I should add this term is usually used in terms of someone who has spent 20+ years in a career (and typically the same company) and is at loggerheads with upper management in an unresolvable situation and is about to get forced out over the situation. i.e., upper mgmt is doing something that person believe is wrong, unethical, etc.
  - rooshdi 14y ago
    I'm not arguing about the opportunities money provides in this capitalistic society. I'm arguing about the power it holds over some people's moral decisions.