Comment by krisdol | Hacker News Reader

Comment by krisdol | Hacker News Reader

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You're right, I should not have worded my comment in such a way because I did not want to start an argument around that particular topic.

To better phrase it: I feel that the problems being solved with software on this community, while valuable, are typically addressed at other geeks, upper-middle class consumers, entrepreneurs, and the startup community.

I think we can agree that nearly no discussions on this site center around using our technical expertise at solving the problems facing those who are impoverished, ill, unemployed, discriminated-against, and/or facing extreme difficulty accessing the sort of quality of life many of us enjoy. Much of the solutions here have either low relevance or high barriers of entry (be it cost, technology, or educational background) for that population.

I'm seeking a community, be it a hackerspace, online community, conference, or similar that focuses on solutions that are driven more by social impact than profit.

While I disagree with libertarians on many issues, I did not mean to say that they do not consider these problems. I apologize

I see your concern over the impoverished and unfortunate people. I assume you consider that their problems are, at least partly, a consequence of poor wealth distribution and poor governance of the powers that be.

Libertarians, as much as most other political thinkers (of non-Machiavelli type) care about roughly the same thing: well-being of people. It just so happens that the libertarian discourse is usually concentrated around rather deep root causes: unjust property laws, the seizure of power and wealth by the elite, obstacles built by elites that prevent people from producing their own subsistence.

This is a bit different from, let's call it, philanthropic discourse that usually concentrates on more immediate problems, e.g. providing hunger relief or better education in affected regions. These problems can be very serious and long-term (like elimination of diseases that may take decades) but usually are not about principal changes in the structure of the society.

There are, of course, other schools of thought that offer deep social changes to help people live better. But a significant number of geeks is attracted by libertarian ideas because they are so minimalist (as compared to e.g. socialism, as seen in much of Europe) and so pro-freedom (as compared to e.g. corporate etatism as seen e.g. in Singapore or Russia).

On topic: unfortunately, I don't know about a philanthropic geek community hub. My philanthropic activity is limited to monetary donations. But you could ask IT people from philanthropic projects, e.g. watsi.com; probably they know where like-minded people congregate.

You say Libertarians are focused on "unjust property laws", but sadly most Libertarians these days seem to be royal libertarians, supporting land as private property where the owner is 100% sovereign and are opposed to such things as inheritance tax on land. If you agree with the arguments of this article (I do), this is fundamentally unjust property law. People who don't own land are at the mercy of land owners and so are not free. The Mathew Effect ensures that land ownership becomes more and more concentrated, contributing greatly (if not mostly) to the extremely poor distribution of wealth that we see today.

What are your opinions of the article's arguments?

May I suggest two other narratives that don't involve politics behind "the problems being solved ... are typically addressed at other geeks, upper-middle class consumers, entrepreneurs, and the startup community."?

Why geeks, upper-middle-class, etc? That's where the perception of easy money is, and you see a lot of it here because this is one of the target audiences.

Why startup community or fellow geeks? There is a mantra to solve a problem you have, which means there are a lot of geek- or startup-related apps.

I would also ask you to believe that there are many people who are working on products outside of the "consumer app" space that doesn't advertise, per se, on this site.

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