Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage
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Here's the latest example.
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Of course, there are some potentially positive aspects of donor-advised funds. Proponents speak of donor-advised funds as “democratizing” giving because anyone, including people with just a few thousand dollars to give, can set up a donor-advised fund and guide how that money is used.
Just write a few checks to those places where you want the money to be used.
This reminds me of universities with giant endowments that still charge tens of thousands of dollars in tuition. Demonstrations of of Jerry Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureacracy:
In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.[
I can understand the perceived utility (even beyond the tax advantages in the law), but the funds that exist to be funds are obviously not very charitable.
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Best quote:
It’s a place where $100,000 Teslas are commonplace
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@gąska Why is that funny?
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@blakeyrat there's less than 200,000 of ALL Teslas worldwide. Even if we assume 90% are sold to CA, that's very far from commonplace in such populous state.
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@boomzilla You want the universities to spend their capital? Their goal is to break even on capital gains and tuition and costs ("living on the interest"). If they spend their capital, they'll eventually run out.
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@captain said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@boomzilla You want the universities to spend their capital? Their goal is to break even on capital gains and tuition and costs ("living on the interest"). If they spend their capital, they'll eventually run out.
I think he meant that the interest from the endowments should be enough to not have to charge so much for tuition.
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I think one of the bigger problems with universities is the feature creep which is raising the tuition.
Honestly, I don't need a 5 star spa at college. That's like, 1/2 of my tuition price right there.
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@xaade I think you're confusing illness with symptom. The problem is they inflate prices to absurd levels, and spas etc. are only a justification for doing it even more.
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Could be worse, the city they live in could just randomly institute a head tax and say "It's for something" and refuse to show anything, then call you a right wing terrorist for questioning them.
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@gąska said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@xaade I think you're confusing illness with symptom. The problem is they inflate prices to absurd levels, and spas etc. are only a justification for doing it even more.
Yeah, that.
I wonder if it's there to just justify higher flowrate of money, which means more into investment opportunities?
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@xaade I wouldn't be surprised if this spa was built by the principal's brother in law.
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@xaade said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
I think one of the bigger problems with universities is the
feature creepadmin bloat which is raising the tuition.
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@captain said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@boomzilla You want the universities to spend their capital? Their goal is to break even on capital gains and tuition and costs ("living on the interest"). If they spend their capital, they'll eventually run out.
No, living on the interest is exactly what I would rather see them do. Not that all universities have gargantuan endowments and a steady flow of alumni donations but places like Harvard or Stanford should be embarrassed to charge anyone to go there.
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@boomzilla Or oxford.
You've been a university for like a thousand years. How have you not saved up endowment money by now?
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@aygeeplus Sure, there are lots of them. I think those two have some of the biggest at this point, though.
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@gąska said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@blakeyrat there's less than 200,000 of ALL Teslas worldwide. Even if we assume 90% are sold to CA, that's very far from commonplace in such populous state.
Don't know about percentage, but they're damn common in Silly Valley. (The drivers are almost as bad as BMW drivers.)
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@xaade said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
Honestly, I don't need a 5 star spa at college.
But the NCAA football team does and they're responsible for millions in Nike sponsorships.
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@gąska said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
Even if we assume 90% are sold to CA, that's very far from commonplace in such populous state.
Commonplace just means you don't do a double-take when you see them. Teslas are commonplace.
I thought you were going to make some pedantic point about how they got the price wrong.
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@blakeyrat said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@xaade said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
Honestly, I don't need a 5 star spa at college.
But the NCAA football team does and they're responsible for millions in Nike sponsorships.
Great. They can pay for the spa then.
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@boomzilla said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@captain said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@boomzilla You want the universities to spend their capital? Their goal is to break even on capital gains and tuition and costs ("living on the interest"). If they spend their capital, they'll eventually run out.
No, living on the interest is exactly what I would rather see them do. Not that all universities have gargantuan endowments and a steady flow of alumni donations but places like Harvard or Stanford should be embarrassed to charge anyone to go there.
I oppose to the principle that private institutions should charge less for their services than clients are willing to pay. It's not the universities that are the problem - it's how easy it is to get student loan.
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@gąska said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@boomzilla said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@captain said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@boomzilla You want the universities to spend their capital? Their goal is to break even on capital gains and tuition and costs ("living on the interest"). If they spend their capital, they'll eventually run out.
No, living on the interest is exactly what I would rather see them do. Not that all universities have gargantuan endowments and a steady flow of alumni donations but places like Harvard or Stanford should be embarrassed to charge anyone to go there.
I oppose to the principle that private institutions should charge less for their services than clients are willing to pay. It's not the universities that are the problem - it's how easy it is to get student loan.
I don't really disagree with anything you're saying.
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@boomzilla well, I do disagree that anyone should be embarassed for charging money. If anything, it's students who should be embarassed for paying them so much!
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@gąska I think the alumni who keep pumping money in are pretty ridiculous too.
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@boomzilla said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@gąska I think the alumni who keep pumping money in are pretty ridiculous too.
See this is the deal.
I'd feel a sense of, not moral obligation but something, if I were pumping in money to my university if it meant cheaper tuition and enabling others to go.
Knowing it just goes to yet ever more expanding expenditures without benefiting the students is a downer.
I suppose I could donate to a scholarship, but finding one that has my university as a requirement could be difficult.
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@xaade said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@blakeyrat said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@xaade said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
Honestly, I don't need a 5 star spa at college.
But the NCAA football team does and they're responsible for millions in Nike sponsorships.
Great. They can pay for the spa then.
The football team, or Nike? Because it's probably Nike.
I think people tend to greatly overestimate how much tuition money is spent on athletics. At any school with a major sports team, almost all of the money spent on athletics comes from the income from athletics (tickets, merchandise, donations, sponsorships, etc.). At some schools, one or two sports (usually football and basketball) pays for the entire athletic department.
I doubt there are many, if any, universities where they could have a new science building if it weren't for the football team.
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@dragnslcr said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@xaade said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@blakeyrat said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@xaade said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
Honestly, I don't need a 5 star spa at college.
But the NCAA football team does and they're responsible for millions in Nike sponsorships.
Great. They can pay for the spa then.
The football team, or Nike? Because it's probably Nike.
I think people tend to greatly overestimate how much tuition money is spent on athletics. At any school with a major sports team, almost all of the money spent on athletics comes from the income from athletics (tickets, merchandise, donations, sponsorships, etc.). At some schools, one or two sports (usually football and basketball) pays for the entire athletic department.
I doubt there are many, if any, universities where they could have a new science building if it weren't for the football team.
It doesn't help when your uni builds a new stand for the field and then bumps up tuition by a significant margin for the same exact year.
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@dragnslcr actually, only about 10 D1 schools have self supporting sports programs at all, and at most of those it's only one or two (football/basketball). The rest is net drain.
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@benjamin-hall Yeah but they use creative accounting to ensure that.
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@xaade said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@boomzilla said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@gąska I think the alumni who keep pumping money in are pretty ridiculous too.
See this is the deal.
I'd feel a sense of, not moral obligation but something, if I were pumping in money to my university if it meant cheaper tuition and enabling others to go.
Knowing it just goes to yet ever more expanding expenditures without benefiting the students is a downer.
I suppose I could donate to a scholarship, but finding one that has my university as a requirement could be difficult.
Look to see if your university has a foundation or other endowment fund. My fairly small state university has a foundation with hundreds of different funds. If there aren't any that you like, you can work with them to create a new fund that fits your exact purpose (I did this for a fund at my university's foundation).
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@boomzilla said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
I think the alumni who keep pumping money in are pretty ridiculous too.
That's the thing for me.
"Wow that school for rich people I went to, where I got to network with all kinds of other rich people who have never in their life seen the word 'overdrawn' was sure great. Even though the school has $57 billion dollars from rich people like me, I better give them some more money so they can serve more rich people."
Like seriously, just flush your money down the toilet, it'd be just as effective.
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@gąska said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@blakeyrat there's less than 200,000 of ALL Teslas worldwide. Even if we assume 90% are sold to CA, that's very far from commonplace in such populous state.
Yes, but you can't stand on a Silly Valley street corner for 10 minutes without seeing a dozen of them drive by.
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@boomzilla Ok. So what is Harvard's operating budget? (4.5 billion). They'd need 12% returns just to keep the lights on.
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@captain said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@boomzilla Ok. So what is Harvard's operating budget? (4.5 billion). They'd need 12% returns just to keep the lights on.
- They have other sources of income.
- They could probably tighten their belts a bit.
- Certainly enough to reduce tuition
They charged nearly $1B in tuition that year.
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@xaade said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@gąska said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@xaade I think you're confusing illness with symptom. The problem is they inflate prices to absurd levels, and spas etc. are only a justification for doing it even more.
Yeah, that.
I wonder if it's there to just justify higher flowrate of money, which means more into investment opportunities?
In huge part this is about the rankings. Large number of applicants per spot drive those up. Spas draw people in. Difference between $70,000 and $120,000 in debt doesn't even register when you're 19.
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Yeah, I can't for the live of me figure out why I'd want to donate money to a place that already charged me 5 gazillion dollars a semester in tuition. As a way of giving back if it had been exceptionally cheap, yes sure, but not like this. Rich people problems.
Maybe it's just the rich boys' club making sure the place stays the rich boys' club, so their children can also enjoy networking their way to success without having to worry about average people showing up there.
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@topspin said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
Maybe it's just the rich boys' club making sure the place stays the rich boys' club, so their children can also enjoy networking their way to success
You mean networking to failure... -_-
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@xaade If you're in that crowd, failure is still success.
If you went to Central Washington University, failure is working at McDonalds for 30 years and trying not to starve.
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@hardwaregeek said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@gąska said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@blakeyrat there's less than 200,000 of ALL Teslas worldwide. Even if we assume 90% are sold to CA, that's very far from commonplace in such populous state.
Yes, but you can't stand on a Silly Valley street corner for 10 minutes without seeing a dozen of them drive by.
I've just thought of an amazing use case for self-driving cars: you can save on parking fees by never actually parking! Just keep it in motion for the 8 hours you're at work, and have it pick you up when you're done!
Alternatively, drive to work, and let self-driving find a free parking spot within 30 miles radius.
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@aygeeplus said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@boomzilla Or oxford.
You've been a university for like a thousand years. How have you not saved up endowment money by now?
They've saved up quite a bit (they've got the second largest endowment in the UK) but it's just on a similar scale to UPenn (approx; depends on exchange rate) in part because differences in tax systems don't encourage the megadonations. Not that endowments are the only way to do things. Bonds also work, and again, you don't use them to cover tuition costs or permanent staff salaries (because that way lies financial disaster).
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@gąska @gąska Silly Valley, for all its faults, is mostly suburban, meaning most office buildings are only one or two stories, and it's rare for employers not to provide free parking for employees. There are exceptions, such as downtown San Jose (and anywhere in San Francisco, but it's not in Silly Valley; it's in its own special world of silly), but for the most part, that's not where the major tech employers are.
Self-parking cars might be a useful thing in urban areas like San Francisco or New York, but not in Silly Valley.
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@hardwaregeek wait, SF isn't Silly Valley? I always thought Bay Area and Silicon Valley are synonymous.
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@xaade said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
I think one of the bigger problems with universities is the feature creep which is raising the tuition.
Honestly, I don't need a 5 star spa at college. That's like, 1/2 of my tuition price right there.
My school keeps those separate - frivolities of all sorts are paid for by Associated Students.
Whose fee is triple my tuition. Christ.
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@gąska Me too. Apparently Wikipedia doesn't think that San Francisco counts.
Yes I know it's outside Santa Clara Valley, but culturally SF is definitely in Silicon Valley. All the shit that goes down in Santa Clara Valley also goes down in SF, SF just has a bit more history and slightly more dignity since it existed before 1975.
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@blakeyrat said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
culturally SF is definitely in Silicon Valley
Even if that were true, I wouldn't admit it. IMHO, the People's Soviet Socialist Republic of San Francisco is the epitome of all that is evil in the US today.
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@xaade said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
I'd feel a sense of, not moral obligation but something, if I were pumping in money to my university if it meant cheaper tuition and enabling others to go.
Most universities I'm aware of let you do this; you can either donate to the General Fund, or Capital Fund, or whatever they call it ("use the money for whatever you want") or you can donate to a specific program (arts, athletics, financial aid...). My university (and IIRC all of the Ivy Leagues) has a program where the university covers all tuition and fees exceeding the Expected Family Contribution with grants. Since I paid my own way, that was the only reason I was able to go to university. So fuck yeah, I'm donating to that program every year.
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@gąska said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
I always thought Bay Area and Silicon Valley are synonymous.
Not at all. Bay Area encompasses the entire bay area. North, South, East. Silicon Valley is normally viewed as the general San Jose area (stretching up the peninsula a little ways, and up towards Fremont on the east) - so South Bay and a little.
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@blakeyrat Okay, I’ll bite: I live in Silicon Valley and I’ve donated to a donor-advised fund. Why does that in particular make me greedy asshole human garbage?
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@blakeyrat said in Silicon Valley people are all greedy asshole human garbage:
@xaade If you're in that crowd, failure is still success.
Yes, but I was referring more like you're personally successful in your career, but the combined impact you made was a total failure, because networking is more effective than doing things well.