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Patrick actually answers this point. The shorter is that while people are free to spend as they please to charities, businesses usually don't. He goes on to not

Patrick actually answers this point. The shorter is that while people are free to spend as they please to charities, businesses usually don't. He goes on to note that businesses have very different value structures. This means that while I may consider a hundred buck real money, an enterprise business very likely will not. The final bit is that businesses value some things disproportionately highly compared to the trivial cost of it. There are plenty of reasons for this that he makes clear. But that value is for that service, not a charity. It will never get redirected otherwise. So getting a business to happily pay a large sum for a cheap service is a fantastic way to ensure you now have the money to donate, and likely an order of magnitude more. This is also the reason he says to charge $500 a month, but to give away the service to them that need it. Because the business is effectively subsidizing the needy here, while itself provably working in it's own interest. This is pretty win-win if anything.

ixmatus 13y ago
Or increase your salary and use the surplus to donate. But really most of that profit should probably be directed to improving the business, or R&D that goes back into the business (which can be opensource!).
mcintyre1994 13y ago
Anothing thing he mentioned which I think is really important here is that a business (at least his own) cannot make a donation, that's an unnecessary business expense. It seems important to understanding his view - he wants to pay more for an even better service but literally cannot do so legally.
- gpvos 13y ago
  My question here is: why can't a business make an "unnecessary business expense"? Are businesses legally forbidden from doing so? Really? Why? Or does it just mean that the business can't deduct it from its earnings for tax reasons? In that case, why doesn't the business just pay the extra tax? In my eyes, there's nothing wrong with paying tax. I just cannot understand why anyone would make a rule against such a thing. (Note: as you probably already understand, I do not run a business.)

ixmatus 13y ago

Or increase your salary and use the surplus to donate. But really most of that profit should probably be directed to improving the business, or R&D that goes back into the business (which can be opensource!).

mcintyre1994 13y ago

Anothing thing he mentioned which I think is really important here is that a business (at least his own) cannot make a donation, that's an unnecessary business expense. It seems important to understanding his view - he wants to pay more for an even better service but literally cannot do so legally.

gpvos 13y ago
My question here is: why can't a business make an "unnecessary business expense"? Are businesses legally forbidden from doing so? Really? Why? Or does it just mean that the business can't deduct it from its earnings for tax reasons? In that case, why doesn't the business just pay the extra tax? In my eyes, there's nothing wrong with paying tax. I just cannot understand why anyone would make a rule against such a thing. (Note: as you probably already understand, I do not run a business.)