GoFundMe and the like Crowd Funding or Begging?

[josh_the_hot_boy]

I'm curious as to your guy's opinions on sites like GoFundMe and the like. Is it crowd funding or begging?

I think there's a fine line between the two. If your using it to bank roll a project that will benefit a lot of people like a business or say a charitable project then I think it's crowd funding. If your using it for things like "I can't pay for my surgery help me." then I think that's begging. Crowd funding shouldn't be used for gains of an individual nature. If you wanna create software that can help blind people use a computer better then that's where crowd funding comes in but if your car breaks down and you don't have the money to fix it crowd funding isn't the right way to go. It just comes off as begging in my opinion.

So what do you think is the line between crowd funding and begging? Do you think sites like GoFundMe should be able to be used to raise money for anything? Should crowd funding exist at all?

 

[cacc]

I've mainly seen them used for begging, but I've also seen them used for legitimate business to, I think they're great sites, always good to see a good business idea supported or even for the beggars, to see people help someone in need is also nice.

 

[W!nston]

Haven't there been cases of fraud on these sites? I seem to remember hearing about people claiming to need money for their disabled kids or for their mother's surgery or for their own cancer etc only to be found out as a fraud.

What about those cases? Should they face charges of fraud? Or should the naive suckers who donate just learn a life lesson and move on?

Also, do the recipients of crowd funding pay income taxes?

 

[cacc]

Haven't there been cases of fraud on these sites? I seem to remember hearing about people claiming to need money for their disabled kids or for their mother's surgery or for their own cancer etc only to be found out as a fraud.

What about those cases? Should they face charges of fraud? Or should the naive suckers who donate just learn a life lesson and move on?

Also, do the recipients of crowd funding pay income taxes?

Tough call. I would think that if it were found out that it was a fraud they would be banned from using the site again, but tough to say if any sort of criminal charges should be filed.

 

[ritsuka]

I really don't agree with your use of the word "begging" in a negative connotation to describe desperate people asking for financial support when they have no other means. I guess you would rather they died on the streets in desolate silence and shame rather then open themselves up to the community and ask for support in their time of need? I think it's much more legitimate to use the site to ask for help in the absence of a sufficient social welfare system in the US as opposed to crowdfunding for instance a Veronica Mars film, a corporate franchise owned by a big named studio who can easily afford to fund it's own crap.

If you're a bigoted asshole, if you deny gay people the right to buy a pizza from you or shoot an unarmed black teen, you can raise huge amounts of money to your side, but if you're a young, black, disabled, or a gay young person (and over 40% of homeless youth are glbt, and they badly need support) who falls on hard times and you have no family to help you, there is usually substantially less financial support given on that site. So, I think people need to be more compassionate and committed to social justice rather then supporting hollywood films.

 

[gb2000ie]

Haven't there been cases of fraud on these sites? I seem to remember hearing about people claiming to need money for their disabled kids or for their mother's surgery or for their own cancer etc only to be found out as a fraud.

What about those cases? Should they face charges of fraud? Or should the naive suckers who donate just learn a life lesson and move on?

Also, do the recipients of crowd funding pay income taxes?

The tools you use to break the law don't change your guilt. If you commit fraud, you should be prosecuted.

Same principle applies to tax - there are laws for that, and whether or not you use the internet to make the money makes no difference to your liability. Also, the IRS will happily prosecute all tax dodgers, they don't see the internet as being different.

B.

 

[dargelos]

On the income tax question, donations, like casino winnings, are not classed as income and so no tax is due.
On the main question, crowd funding is only a fashionable name for something that has always been a part of civillised life. Schools and churches were built with sponsors money. Railway and electricity networks would not have got far without investors willing to take a chance.
As for begging, that's just a choice of word, used to create a lack of sympathy. There is no shame in needing to ask for help to get food and medicine. The shame is on a society that so badly fails it's less fortunate members.

 

[gb2000ie]

On the income tax question, donations, like casino winnings, are not classed as income and so no tax is due.

Be careful giving advice like that on the internet - there are people here from all over the world, and tax law is VERY different on these matters in different countries.

I do some podcasting in real-life, which is entirely funded by listener donations, and under the tax laws in my country, I DO have to pay tax on them.

On the main question, crowd funding is only a fashionable name for something that has always been a part of civillised life. Schools and churches were built with sponsors money. Railway and electricity networks would not have got far without investors willing to take a chance.
As for begging, that's just a choice of word, used to create a lack of sympathy. There is no shame in needing to ask for help to get food and medicine. The shame is on a society that so badly fails it's less fortunate members.

Exactly!

Also, one of the crowd funding sites is called "patreon", it's intentinoally tying itself back to the long history of art being funded by donations from patrons of the arts. In the past those patrons were rich and/or royal, but today, anyone can be a patron of the arts thanks to sites like Patreon.

B.

 

[josh_the_hot_boy]

I really don't agree with your use of the word "begging" in a negative connotation to describe desperate people asking for financial support when they have no other means. I guess you would rather they died on the streets in desolate silence and shame rather then open themselves up to the community and ask for support in their time of need? I think it's much more legitimate to use the site to ask for help in the absence of a sufficient social welfare system in the US as opposed to crowdfunding for instance a Veronica Mars film, a corporate franchise owned by a big named studio who can easily afford to fund it's own crap.

If you're a bigoted asshole, if you deny gay people the right to buy a pizza from you or shoot an unarmed black teen, you can raise huge amounts of money to your side, but if you're a young, black, disabled, or a gay young person (and over 40% of homeless youth are glbt, and they badly need support) who falls on hard times and you have no family to help you, there is usually substantially less financial support given on that site. So, I think people need to be more compassionate and committed to social justice rather then supporting hollywood films.

I'm referring to people who DO have other options like finding a job but CHOOSE to just to ask other people for money.

 

[gb2000ie]

I'm referring to people who DO have other options like finding a job but CHOOSE to just to ask other people for money.

Like artists?

B.

 

[ritsuka]

I'm referring to people who DO have other options like finding a job but CHOOSE to just to ask other people for money.

No, when you CHOOSE to judge people you DON'T even know and decide what their options are, you discriminate and do significant harm. Blaming the impoverished, homeless, sick and disabled for their own cirstances and holding them to unbelievably high standards if they are to be deemed worthy of help is a bitter sport that hurts everyone.

 

[dargelos]

When individuals ask for help, you have a choice. You can care about your fellow human beings or you can walk away. That's your choice.
When a multi billion dollar corporation asks for help, you don't get that choice. Your tax money provides handouts to Amazon or Walmart whether you like it or not. You did not get the choice about how many hundreds of billions you wanted to donate to the banking world.

Mark 4.25
"For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath."