Facebook CEO Donates $1 Billion to Nonprofit

[Ice]

As I understand it, the gift consists of two chunks of $500M in shares in FaceBook. We're talking funny money here.

Still I suppose the charity can afford to employ someone who is sufficiently familiar with that sort of thing to convert it into actual cash flow.

It's not funny money. Where does it say that FaceBook is not easily traded on the stock exchange and liquidated into cash?

[Tellos Athenaios]

It's not funny money. Where does it say that FaceBook is not easily traded on the stock exchange and liquidated into cash?

It doesn't. But try and liquidate $1B of shares all at once.

[Ice]

It doesn't. But try and liquidate $1B of shares all at once.

Yeah, I can see where you are coming from. If you think about though, I doubt they would liquidate it all in cash immediately nor would they want to. It would probably be a gradual process, so while the value of the stock could swing substantially over its life, it still has a very real value associated with it.

[Husar]

Al Jazeera had an interesting opinion piece on charity:

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opi...423540217.html

Charity, as a supplement to justice, should be applauded. But charity as a substitute for justice is neither charity nor justice. It is cruelty.

[...]

Fiscal stability that relies on gifts is not stability. It is a guarantee of insecurity: income based not on work but on whim. Capricious generosity is not a replacement for a living wage, nor is it a basis for a functioning society. Charity is no substitute for justice.

[...]

Charity, for the giver, is the trade of cash for a moral fix. As the Make-a-Wish showed, charity can be beautiful. But it is an investment in the present, not the future. If you value the future - if you value a society where people can imagine their future - work for justice.