Monday, May 28, 2012

I've Quit Facebook

There are times when you just have to take a stand and I've decided that the greed in this country is just too much to handle. The latest example of this is that Eduardo Saverin (image at left), a co-founder of Facebook who has renounced his US citizenship.

The news has pointed out that he did this one day before the Facebook IPO which created millions of dollars of profit for him and which he now, since he's a foreign citizen, doesn't have to pay taxes on. While he defends his actions as a desire to become a citizen of Singapore, it doesn't really jibe with his timing.

While I gladly do business with companies that are foreign (I purchase gas from Arco, which is British Petroleum, or Royal Dutch Shell, for example) at least I'm aware of the foreign nature of the business and agree to that.

This situation is different. What is really galling about this situation is that he was born in Brazil, came to this country and was educated in our finest schools and at Harvard, then went on to make $2 billion from the country that he became a citizen of. Now that he's gotten it, he's taking it and leaving and renouncing that country that gave him the opportunity to get rich.

While he currently has no personal involvement with FaceBook, he is still a 5% owner and my only way of reacting to this is to ensure that he won't make any money in the future from ME. Facebook will not have my eyeballs for their advertising messages so in a small way I will diminish their potential profit.

That this information comes right around Memorial Day, when we honor those who sacrificed for our country, this %$&# is doing the exact opposite of sacrifice. You'll now be able to find me on Google+.

Again, as a result, I've gotten rid of my account and don't plan to be back.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Right on man!