
This Startup Entrepreneur Lives on Minimum Wage So He Has More Money to Donate - alexflint
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-startup-entrepreneur-lives-on-minimum-wage-so_us_5783da0ee4b05b4c02fd2e0b
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plandis
This is awesome! But I do wonder what his safety nets look like. For instance,
I grew up poor so even though I have a good job and have saved a lot I'm
always in fear of getting knocked back down to where I was. How does he save
for retirement (or is he even)? What about medical bills? What about your car
simply breaking down? Can you actually pay for that?

It seems like he has put everyone else over his own well being which is
definitely commendable. I certainly couldn't do that.

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duncan_bayne
> It seems like he has put everyone else over his own well being which is
> definitely commendable.

It's _really_ not.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_egoism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_egoism)

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kevinwang
I don't understand your point. What does that wikipedia page say anything
about what's commendable?

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duncan_bayne
I meant that I think that putting others ahead of yourself isn't, in and of
itself, commendable.

I posted the Wikipedia link as an example of that sort of morality.

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arcamp
This is something I think a lot about as well. How do you choose how much to
give? [https://medium.com/@Agoraforgood/how-do-you-choose-how-
much-...](https://medium.com/@Agoraforgood/how-do-you-choose-how-much-to-
give-64ba8daa61ac#.ppezzxi1v)

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asdffdsaasdf1
Awesome, very commendable.

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meira
This is not charity, is a VC fund for what he wants, and we barely know what
he wants. He is not a philantropist, but a wannabe Gates or Zuckerberg (that
aren't either, just billionares spending billions).

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asdffdsaasdf1
No, it's not a charity. But he's giving away all his money to charity..? How
is that not philanthropic? How are gates or zuckerberg not philanthropists?

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meira
Show me people that are directly helped by these "philantropists" and I'll
tell you if I think they are doing "charity" or not. Charity like internet.org
is scam.

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Xodarap
Thanks for the question – this is Ben (subject of OP).

I listed some causes I think are valuable in the interview, but in general I
think GiveWell and ACE are good evaluators:

* [http://www.givewell.org/](http://www.givewell.org/) * [http://www.animalcharityevaluators.org/](http://www.animalcharityevaluators.org/)

For each charity they recommend, they have estimates of number of lives saved
per dollar.

