Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Why so much faith in non profits? If they have some specia sauce I’m not sure what it is. They still require the prisoners in order to exist and grow. And economically there’s this old joke...they’re not for profit, but they’re not for loss either.


> Why so much faith in non profits?

Perverse incentives. If a company's profit is linked to higher incarceration, they are incentivized to make the problem worse, not better.

This doesn't make all non-profits magical paragons of virtue, or all for-profits evil. It is simply an indicator.


I've heard this one before when discussing a non profit that was thinking of shopping itself around for an acquisition: "I thought they were not-for-profit?" ... "Well, yeah, but they're also not-for-going-out-of-business."


>Why so much faith in non profits?

I don't have that much faith in non-profits. But I don't have any faith in a for-profit company for social good.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: