Shady GoFundMe for Big Dipper at Geauga Lake

slithernoggin said:

If they put up a page on any of the Internet crowdfunding sites and people donate money, everyone wins.

On PBuzz when a kid asked for money saving ideas for going to Cedar Point because he did not have a lot of money (note the word "ideas") your advice was to get a job. But here you feel that it is OK to ask for money (key word "money"). Why does the kid need to get a job when all he was asking for was ideas on how to stretch his money but if someone needs money to pay for a cat it is OK to beg for money?

How is begging for money a win for everyone?

To me, the benefit of GoFundMe outweighs the costs/detriment. Helps reduce transaction costs for valid fund raising thereby increasing net funds raised. That efficiency does allow for what is essentially "begging" but the "market" should sort that out. "Worthy" causes will receive donations and those which aren't deemed "worthy" won't. To the extent its "begging" it is less in your face than street begging. If you don't find the cause worthy, don't give. Maybe its more in your face (in a sense) with social media? As a non-social media user, I wouldn't know.

Getting a job would likely be a better approach in the vast majority of circumstances of people looking for money to go to CP, pay vet bills, buy a car, etc. And that is without even looking at the issue of reliance on yourself rather than others.

Shades said:

On PBuzz when a kid asked for money saving ideas for going to Cedar Point because he did not have a lot of money (note the word "ideas") your advice was to get a job.

Frankly, GoFundMe and its ilk didn't occur to me or I would have suggested it.

I don't remember suggesting he get a job, that may have been someone else. I suggested finding an excursion more budget-friendly, such as Waldameer.

I believe I also noted that had he been asking for tips to stretch the amount of money he had over buying food or paying bills, well, I'm incredibly cheap and full of ways to save money and would have plenty of suggestions. For a trip to an amusement park? Not so much. No one needs to visit an amusement park to survive.

How is begging for money a win for everyone?

You see these crowdfunding sites as begging. I see them as marketplaces. If Joe starts a GoFundMe to raise funds for his child's brain surgery and Jane has $50 to donate and does; if Xavier starts a GoFundMe to raise funds to go on a shopping spree at Nieman Marcus and Ororo decides to make a donation -- everyone wins.

Edited to note: what GoBucks said. Using my silly examples, for me, Joe's would be worthy and Xavier's would not -- but if someone wants to donate to Xavier's spree, that's their choice. The donor gets to feel good about making Xavier happy and Xavier gets to buy overpriced merchandise. They both win.

slithernoggin said:

Why have children, cars, houses or teeth if you can't afford to care for them?

Cars and houses are decisions people make. Teeth, no so much. Children..well...somewhere in between?

If you don't want kids, you could always use condoms or just don't have sex.

Neither of those options are appealing.

There are better options. The US didn't get to a birth rate that is about replacement level in a generation/generation and a half (6+ person families were pretty common when I was a kid and are now very uncommon) without better options.

When I hear the word "crowdsourcing", I think of pulling together funding for a venture like Parkitect or raising money for the guy with a wife and 3 kids that was diagnosed with cancer and lost his job and his insurance. When I hear of someone using GFM for what should be planned expenses like cat dental work or heartworm meds for your dog or an oil change for your car or a gym membership, I don't think crowdsourcing. I think sophisticated panhandling. And, yes, when you get a pet, car, kid, or get out of shape, those are not unexpected expenses.

Regardless of what you or I think about the reason for requested donations, if the donor and donee are happy with the transaction, I'm fine with letting them have at it.

I wouldn't get too excited about this on gofundme. I joined the site to get donations to save my house, and 2 months later, I have received only one donation. I also looked at a few of the people who have received large amounts of money. Some of the people who have received money in the thousands are accident victims, which seems a very worthy cause. But, I saw one family who got over $3000.00 to find their lost dog, and another girl who got almost $500. to buy herself a new dress for her prom. The sad ones are photos of someone on their death bed, who have received nothing.

If you want to see what I posted look at the Michigan gofundme ads. My zip code is 49312. You can find me that way. I think the prom dress girl is there too.

By zip? Cool, I should be able to find it within a few days.

To be fair, he did give you the helpful prom dress girl tip.

Oh, right...that should guarantee I find it even before the next time he has internet access.

You know who should jump on that prom dress?

Michigan's Adventure, New for 2016, a Prom dress!

Huh. "Help me buy my prom dress" seems to be a popular GoFundMe topic.

Why work for something and pay for it yourself if you can get strangers on the internet to do it for you?

In my case BrettV, I started working full time in 1985. I made $3.35 an hour, which was minimum wage at that time. And I had full time jobs off and on. I also worked 3 jobs almost 120 hours a week. my last job was at Meijer where I worked full time for 15 years. My last pay rate was $13.85 an hour, and I made over $23,000 a year.

But, like a lot of other people in this country, corporate America no longer sees long term employees as assets. They would rather move their company to Mexico, or get rid of as many people as they can, to cut their labor costs. Those people, like myself, went from having a decent income to nothing, just because of those cuts.

People don't go to sites like gofundme, just because they don't want to work. Some people go there because they can no longer work, or live in an area where the jobs have left. Or, because their bills are more than what they can afford, and don't know what else to do. This makes sites like Gofundme, lots of money, gives people in need some hope. Which is a trickle for some, and nothing for a lot more people.

The way I see it, when someone spends time to ask for help, they are doing something. Like those poor guys that stand all day on the expressway with a help me sign. They are doing what they think they need to do to survive. They certainly aren't lazy. Standing out there in the cold for hours at time, being ignored by people, even having people throw things at them, or insult them. That takes some kind of stamina.

It makes me sick that people still bitch about people who don't work, when all companies talk about is how they don't want to pay workers more money. And, why should they pay $9.00 an hour minimum wage, when they can workers in other countries for $9.00 a day...in some places 50 cents a day.

If you go back into American history, that used to be us. Until someone said enough is enough. Not to mention times when people worked as slaves, and didn't get paid at all. Not to mention 10 and 12 year olds working in our factories.

Things change, and the new thing should be people caring enough to help others. I'm glad its happening for some, even though I haven't received anything, at least its some kind of hope.

To bring slavery into the discussion in relation to your situation is not only hyperbole, it's downright offensive.

Timber-Rider said:

my last job was at Meijer where I worked full time for 15 years...

corporate America no longer sees long term employees as assets. They would rather move their company to Mexico, or get rid of as many people as they can, to cut their labor costs. Those people, like myself, went from having a decent income to nothing, just because of those cuts.

I hate it when they relocate grocery stores to Mexico and lay off American workers.

First off, what Jeff said. Offensive.

Timber-Rider said:

....when all companies talk about is how they don't want to pay workers more money. And, why should they pay $9.00 an hour minimum wage, when they can workers in other countries for $9.00 a day...in some places 50 cents a day.

Corporations don't bear all the responsibility here. American consumers are happy to go to Walmart -- or Meijer -- and buy cheap goods made overseas.

Digressing a bit, but hoping this will be of interest (and I have a few minutes as the 7th most horrible episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, Masks, is on):

I recently read an interesting article about how the "gig economy" for the most part won't transform industries. Uber and Lyft succeed because they take a very expensive purchase, a car, and replace it, for urban customers, with an on demand, less expensive alternative. Even if you only travel during surge pricing periods, you're going to spend less money on Uber than on owning a car.

But taking that "gig" model and applying it elsewhere doesn't generally work out.

Instacart, TaskRabbit, Postmates, Luxe and other such companies that seek to apply the Uber model are able to keep prices and fees low at the start as they benefit from venture capitalist investments; they've got money to burn. Once those dry up, they have to raise prices and fees and confront that the people willing to do those jobs at the prices the companies wants to pay don't meet the demand for the product, but as they raise the price to entice workers, the customers willing to pay the increasing prices dwindle.