[ExI] gofundme question

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
Sent: Wednesday, February 9, 2022 10:23
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Cc: Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ExI] gofundme question

 

On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 7:49 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

Any attempt to collect refunded money could result in the risk that Gofundme would reveal who donated to the truckers.

 

>…This is the break in your chain of logic.  The donors would collect refunds from Gofundme, true, but there is insufficient evidence that these donations were linked to the truckers.  As I understand it, there's nothing on any bank documents to indicate this: the banks only know that this is a transfer from Gofundme to the person, not why.  The timing is insufficient on its own: Gofundme refunds money all the time, so this could have been from any of a number of campaigns.  And that's all the police would have to go on…

 

Ja.

 

My notion is that somebody started a Gofundme for Canadian truckers.  Gofundme decided it would not distribute funds to the truckers.  Canada decided it had the authority to make it illegal to even give fuel and food to the striking truckers.  In the USA, the federal government doesn’t have the authority to issue such an edict, but apparently the Canadian government thinks it does.

 

In any case… Gofundme made the decision to not disburse the collected funds.  So… that indicates they think they own the money, even while offering to return the money to donors, many of which may never show up.  Excellent business model I would say.

 

Then it occurred to me…

 

… that the option to keep the money would apply to ANY organization collecting money for ANY cause: there is no legally-enforceable requirement that the person or company collecting the funds to give it to anyone.  They could keep the money, or give it to their favorite charity, or keep the money, or offer to return it or keep the money, and if given those choices, I suspect they would choose to keep the money.  This would apply to any political party, any political cause, any charity, any religion, any anything people might donate to: they could choose to keep the money.

 

>…No evidence, no bust… and they know this.  Adrian

 

That part I understand, and you are right on: anyone in the donation collection industry has little risk and much to gain.

 

spike

 

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