Thursday, September 28, 2006

Things that don't suck: Craig

The owner and founder of Craigslist was recently asked if he had considered selling the online classified giant, after analysts projected the value of MySpace in 3 years at $15 billion. His exact response:

"Who needs the money? We don't really care," Craig Newmark said in an interview at the Picnic '06 Cross Media Week conference here.

"If you're living comfortably, what's the point of having more?" Newmark said.

This guy is one of the reasons I still have hope for our society. When I win Powerball (I'm moving to NH, so I can say that now), I will live comfortably, but not in excess, and will dedicate my life to helping others, in some way. Bank on it. No gated driveways for me.

3 comments:

Andy said...

If you win Powerball could you dedicate your life to helping me live my life to excess?

Seriously though I'm with you. If I were rich I wouldn't buy a mansion or a private jet. Who needs that stuff?

Why doesn't Craig take the money and then use it for philanthropy? If anyone ever does buy craigslist and commercialize it, I predict it will fall into disuse as another free service emerges.

Patterson said...

Further on down that interview, he was saying that finding a cause to donate to is an exhaustive effort. Unfortunately, most of the time, someone ends up profiting from these efforts.

Good example - one that buries my credibility: The Clinton-Bush Katrina Fund. Barbara Bush donated a large amount, then earmarked the donation with a statement that it only be used to pay for a software company owned by her son.

However, there are smaller orgs that are in it for the good of everyone. This week, Conan O'Brien was on the news promoting this site: www.labelsareforjars.org. 100% of the proceeds of those t-shirts goes to provide a dignified, hot meal for the homeless in Lawrence. Conan was saying the same thing, that he gets approached about charity work constantly, but he can never see where his money is actually going.

Patterson said...

Sorry, I meant to say, "Barbara Bush, that old windbag bigot asshat."