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The Almighty Buck Businesses Twitter

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Sets Aside $1 Billion In Square Equity For Coronavirus Relief (cnbc.com) 22

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Square and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Tuesday he will set aside $1 billion in his Square equity to support relief efforts for COVID-19 and other causes once the pandemic is over. In a series of tweets, Dorsey said that after the pandemic is over, he will dedicate the money to causes like universal basic income (UBI) and girls' health and education. He said he's pulling the shares from his stake in Square instead of Twitter because he own more stock in the Square. Dorsey said he'll cash in the shares over time.

"The impact this money will have should benefit both companies over the long-term because it's helping the people we want to serve," Dorsey said on Twitter. Dorsey said that he wants to see the impact of his donation during his lifetime, and that "the needs are increasingly urgent." He also said he hopes it will inspire others to "do something similar." Dorsey also tweeted a link to a public Google Doc where people can track which organizations the fund's money will go to.
Dorsey isn't the only technologist to support relief efforts for COVID-19. Yesterday, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said his foundation will spend billions of dollars on coronavirus vaccine development.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos said he's donating $100 million to U.S. food banks. And Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $25 million toward creating treatments for coronavirus through their philanthropic organization.
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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Sets Aside $1 Billion In Square Equity For Coronavirus Relief

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  • Forget that noise, where's the video of Bill Gates dancing in his bathroom?
  • Pay your taxes (Score:4, Interesting)

    by manu0601 ( 2221348 ) on Tuesday April 07, 2020 @05:25PM (#59918898)
    While it is nice to see billionaires giving money to fight the pandemic, such move would not be necessary if they payed their taxes.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • >"such move would not be necessary if they payed their taxes."

      It is highly probable they did pay all the taxes they were required to pay by the tax code.

    • While it is nice to see billionaires giving money to fight the pandemic, such move would not be necessary if they payed their taxes.

      Yeah i feel like this whole thing is him seeing the writing on the wall for his stock prices, pulling out and avoiding as much tax as possible with charity credits.

    • how great is this
    • by Cederic ( 9623 )

      No. Additional tax revenue from a handful of individuals and companies would merely result in a slightly reduced tax burden elsewhere. Tax revenues overall would not rise.

      Feel free to challenge the tax position of Dorsey and his friends but don't link it to pandemic preparation funding.

  • So... am I reading this right?

    Zuck + wife - super cheapos
    Bezos - cheapo
    Dorsey - not cheapo (at least in promise)?
    • by Jarwulf ( 530523 )
      Praising a typical tech billionaire for donating to a currently high profile hip cause is like praising a bank robber for donating a couple bucks from his confiscated stash in the evidence locker. Its a nice gesture and all but you can also donate to not so popular and hip causes that really need attention, stop donating to all the bad causes, or maybe even give some of that money back to the poor people and employees you walked over to get it from in the first place so that they can share in some of the gl
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday April 07, 2020 @05:34PM (#59918916)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • +1

      This isn't "equity to support relief efforts for COVID-19." It is more of a pet agenda wearing a cloak. Of course, it is his money, he can spend it how he wants. And neither are "negative", but trying to spin it as something else is silly. Oh, and "causes like UBI" sounds more like PAC spending.

      In the summary, what Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Zuckerberg announced really ARE relief efforts, and ARE related to the pandemic.

    • by Cederic ( 9623 )

      In the UK too. I'm not sure about the rest of Europe but it wouldn't surprise me. Decades of focus on one gender has skewed resource allocations and systems.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Indeed, but it's not a new phenomenon. Research indicates that in fact girls have /always/ outperformed boys at school. https://www.tandfonline.com/do... [tandfonline.com]

      But that doesn't mean there aren't issues. I imagine Jack's focus is very much on STEM and CS in particular where girls are still under represented, despite apparently being academically more able. And before someone accuses me of it, that's not to say that the issues boys have should be ignored, merely that there are still problems for everyone worthy of a

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I kind of agree, in terms of magnitude it's not as big, but that doesn't mean we can't try to sort out both.

          The main problem with boy's is social, the dreaded toxic masculinity. It's not something that money to schools alone can fight (although money is important), because it needs massive social change. It's happening but slowly.

          Jack can't do much about it because Twitter is claiming to be so dedicated to freedom of speech and any bias he shows will just be used against Twitter and himself. Right wing poli

  • crickets. Billionaire Kushner's crickets.
  • How much tax deduction can one get by spending some of one's money that was stacked away in some tax haven through a double-Irish-with-a-Dutch-sandwich tax loophole?
    These millions should have been available to society through normal taxing in the first place.
    This empathy towards society is just as sincere as Bono charity efforts.

If money can't buy happiness, I guess you'll just have to rent it.

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