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Comment by vedaprodarte | Hacker News Reader

"If Zuckerberg really wants to sell Free Basics, he needs to stop trying to convince people that it’s some self-sacrificing public service and admit what it actually is: a company offering a service that’s (supposedly) beneficial for both users and the company in question."

This is a good argument. This is not a charity act but a business decision. Although it brings something good to the Indian, Indian also helps Facebook to expand its business.

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There is nothing wrong with expanding a business by providing a service. Every service that we use voluntarily, charitable or otherwise, makes our lives better off otherwise we would not be using it. I can't help but think that the poorest in the world are more helped by the efforts of private profit motivated enterprise than that of governments and charitable organizations.

> The World Bank and African Development Bank report there are 650 million mobile users in Africa, surpassing the number in the United States or Europe. In some African countries more people have access to a mobile phone than to clean water, a bank account or electricity, the agencies add. [0]

Perhaps its time to rethink what organizations are best suited for raising the standard of living.

[0] http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/may-2013/africa%E2%...

It doesn't have to be either-or, and I'm saddened that so many people still think that government solutions are always superior to private ones, or the other way around. In fact both have their strengths and weaknesses, and we should learn to evaluate which one fits a given problem better - or even structure a combination of both. For instance, mobile phones are a great success story of market economy, but mobile networks universally start to suck as they grow, and have to be heavily regulated.

It would be kind of like saying Google is offering Gmail for free for charity reasons. I think most people would immediately shot down that argument as well.

As a note aside, that's what many religions have been doing for ages: help the poor, build schools etc. No doubt there have been mutual benefits.

Some much worse organizations do that too on territories they control, which makes the analogy even better. Does Zuckerberg want to preach good news or does he need a cheap source of cannon fodder?

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