LWN.net Logo

Something for nothing ?

Something for nothing ?

Posted Aug 16, 2012 23:11 UTC (Thu) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313)
In reply to: Something for nothing ? by Tester
Parent article: GUADEC: New funding models for open source software

There are a lot of hospitals, schools, and poor being helped as a result of Charity. Saying that it "does not work" requires a very specific definition of that phrase


(Log in to post comments)

Something for nothing ?

Posted Aug 23, 2012 18:21 UTC (Thu) by Tester (subscriber, #40675) [Link]

I mean it does not work as in, it does not scale. You can not provide healthcare or education for everyone as charity, see how loads of people just don't get healthcare in the US as an example.

Something for nothing ?

Posted Aug 24, 2012 2:47 UTC (Fri) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]

US is kind of a exception among advanced western countries. Lots of them provide universal health care and it does scale.

Something for nothing ?

Posted Aug 25, 2012 11:56 UTC (Sat) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Sure. None of them fund their universal healthcare entirely (or even mostly) via charitable donations though. There just aren't enough of them, and even if there were they aren't predictable enough. Healthcare capital investments are often huge and take years: you need to know the money *will* be there, before you start.

Copyright © 2013, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds