[grownseed]

These acts of apparent philanthropy from ridiculously wealthy people rub me the wrong way. It feels like those rich patrons from older times who would bestow their "generosity" as they pleased, except that in modern times most countries have frameworks in place to make this sort of work happen, and these rich people choose to ignore them, or worse, disparage them.

Companies like Facebook (and people like Mark Zuckerberg) actively avoid paying taxes whenever they can, in a lot of countries that, for example, have public healthcare and other public institutions that would normally benefit from these taxes.

It's a bit like repeatedly stealing some kid's lunch, and then making fun of the kid for her weakness while appearing strong (and stronger in comparison to the weak kid) and compassionate when the kid passes out and you carry her on your back.

[wineisfine]

Very true. Empires build by companies with low ethics and that are known for bullying competition and poor integrity.

Some skepticism here would be appropriate. I guess it's still better then them buying more, eh, yachts.

Still, I can't shake the feeling that instead of making a horrible closed product, Facebook, that's basically eating the internet like a cancer, itself -- how about fixing that too?

These people are so powerful they have presidents kissing their ass.

[sanderjd]

I think peoples' perspectives on this are basically divided by the question of who they think is more effective at using these pools of money: foundations run by certain wealthy people, or governments. I've waffled on this question my whole adult life, but now more than ever, I'm pretty happy that, for instance, the donors to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation were able to donate all that money, instead of seeing it under the control of the current (or last few iterations of the) US congress...