On 18/11/2007, GerardM gerard.meijssen@gmail.com wrote:
Hoi, If the US government defaults on its debts, there will still be a Wikimedia Foundation. When it proves no longer possible to be based in the US (unlikely) we will be based elsewhere. You forget that we are an international organisation. When we must, we will continue elsewhere.
The notion that we are dependent on the performance of the US government is absolutely wrong.
Um, Gerard? It's a figure of speech, not a direct dependency.
If the state of the world is such that the government of the United States has ended up declaring bankruptcy - an alarming and implausible event - then most of us are going to be a lot more intimately concerned with our next meal than with worrying over the state of the Wikimedia Foundation, wherever it may be based...
On Nov 18, 2007 1:33 AM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
On 18/11/2007, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Thomas Dalton wrote:
On 17/11/2007, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Thomas Dalton wrote:
Being able to fund activities off capital gains would be very
useful,
but really it requires large endowments to work. Building up a fund from small fundraisers isn't going to work.
Capital gains are not a reliable investment, especially not in the
short
term. Short term capital gains are mostly a matter of good luck.
Putting the cash in a savings account still constitutes capital gains. The term doesn't refer just to risky investments.
Money put into a savings account yields interest income, not capital
gains.
A capital gain is the increase in the value of an asset. When the market value of a company's share increases from its original cost that is a capital gain. When you sell a piece of land for more than you paid for it without having altered it since you bought it, that is a capital gain. If these values go down, it is a capital loss.
Ok, perhaps my example wasn't a particularly good one, but my point stands. The profit made on a Treasury Bill is a capital gain under your definition, and they are generally considered risk-free (if the US government defaults on its debts, keeping the WMF running will be the least of our worries).
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