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Comment by toastercat | Hacker News Reader

She has almost 9000 patrons, and is an already successful Youtuber / e-celebrity. I'm sorry for what's happened to her, but I sincerely think charity is better directed elsewhere (for example, a local org that helps disadvantaged families receive healthcare/resources).

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methinks you underestimate just how bad health care costs are in the US, especially for entrepreneurs who tend to not be able to afford good insurance. On top of that, where's the money coming for rent, power, food, etc? Her husband is a full time caretaker now so... he's not bringing in anything.

Yes, there's value in supporting the things you said, but ~9k patrons to support a creator who isn't creating, and her husband, and her medical costs and andandand... that's not actually very much, especially if she lives in a major city in the US where rent is frequently ridiculous.

The minimum subscription is $3 per month. Even if all 9,000 are paying the minimum it's $27,000 per month.

I beg your pardon but the cheapest tier on her patreon is $3 a month. Please do not try to tell us that $325k a year minimum is not enough.

She doesnt' get 100% of that, she doesn't even get close. Several podcasts I listen to are killing their $2/$3 tiers as it doesn't make them any money. That's also assuming they continue the payment for the full year all 10k of them.

> Several podcasts I listen to are killing their $2/$3 tiers as it doesn't make them any money

Am I missing something here? The cut that Patreon gets is 5-12% of revenue and processing payments for 2-3$ are 5% + 10c. At worst, she's getting $2.2 for every $3/m user.

I think there are other fees but I couldn't find them. Sure so that's $22,000 once if everyone (10k) is $3 tier patreon and goes for one month. For someone who can't work, and then there's taxes. With just federal they're down to $15k for that month. Yeah that's nice, but that's what being nice is. Does that keep going, likely no. And that's max, not including local taxes, etc.

Are they rolling in it, no not at all. I'm not sure what your point is, they don't think they can work, it's been going on for a bit, they get a nice community pay out ... do people live on less, yes definitely. But she didnt' win the lottery here.

I think what they mean by that is that they thing if they raise the bottom tier it won't reduce the number of patreons by the same amount, so they are essentially losing money by not doing that.

Let me tell you: $325k/yr is not enough to manage a debilitating health condition that requires constant care.

For a creator of her size, patreon takes 12% right off the top. ($39k)

In addition, there is a transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30. ($9.5k + $32.5k = $42k)

Then you have to pay taxes. Self employment taxes on $283k are $26.5k. Federal/state/local income taxes are $82k.

189k of your earnings are GONE.

So, you’re at $135k takehome. Not $325k, but not bad, right?! Well, maybe, except this does not include any of the benefits of a traditional job. No health insurance, dental, retirement, etc. Hopefully, they have good health insurance, otherwise they are probably already close to bankrupt.

If you’re wondering whether $135k takehome can support a couple through a catastrophic health issue like this long term, I have the personal experience to say that it can’t. I won’t elaborate further, but maybe someone else can.

Even assuming that your figures are correct, I am not sure how you can conclude that $135k/year take-home is insufficient to support a couple through a catastrophic health issue.

She is apparently in her 30s. Same with me. I pay for an excellent Marketplace health insurance policy. My premium, annualized, is around $6,500, and my annual out-of-pocket maximum is $8,000. That’s $14,500 a year. Double that to liberally cover two people, and you’re still under $30k/year.

How is $135k/year inadequate?

Also worth noting that before the video was released she had a little less than 1k patreons and wasn't releasing new videos. So, she's probably been going through her savings for the past 6 months or so. She's not getting better any time soon either. So, this 9k number will probably decrease a lot in the following months.

I’m not sure how that is relevant.

My comment was a rebuttal to someone who argued that $135k/year in take-home is insufficient to support a couple - any couple - through a catastrophic health issue.

This is in the context that she's already rich enough and doesn't need support. So, I was pointing out that, even if 137k per year is enough. It doesn't mean she quite get that really.

Insurance is not the only health care expense. Her level of illness indicates need for round-the-clock supervision, which could be satisfied by a nursing home at $10k per month, which would allow her husband to work. That’s a pretty miserable existence, so home health aids are more common, which augment the time family spends caring for the sick person. That can easily cost $5k/month or more to just cover enough time to hold a job, go to school, or just sleep most nights without worry.

"$325k/yr is not enough"

...and so definitely needs your charity more than people with only $25k/yr.

That was never said.

I had a serious, one-off injury in 2018 that would have wiped out about half of that if not for my employer sponsored care. US healthcare is extraordinarily expensive.

If you hadn’t had employer-sponsored healthcare, wouldn’t you have purchased health insurance through the Marketplace?

It's significantly more expensive with higher deductibles and copays and smaller networks.

Graphtreon suggests she gained ~7,000 of those after this video was released. She only had 1,000 patrons last month: https://graphtreon.com/creator/physicsgirl

So yeah maybe 8,000 is enough now but maybe 1,000 was not :)

She also did not have more than 1000 patrons before the video push a few days ago. Which, particularly considering what must be substantial medical bills, is definitely not enough to sustain her family.

I was also implying her earnings from her YouTube channel, on which she has over 2 million subscribers. I'm well aware how bad health care costs are in the US. Although I'm not an entrepreneur, I'm willing to wager my net worth does not compare to that of Dianna and her family's. If I were in the same position, I'd probably be less equipped to handle the tremendous healthcare costs, and I probably wouldn't be able to rally thousands of strangers on reddit or YouTube to help pay for my medical bills, even though I'd be more in need of it. Which is both funny to think and perfectly reasonable -- I'm not charismatic nor an e-celebrity.

My point is that it's easy to give money to a Youtuber you like who posts a video with sad piano music and call it a day (I have done this too). It's harder to spend a bit of time to find a way to help the invisible people in your community who may be more in need. You can do both, I would just prioritize the latter.

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