[MLUG] Anyone planning on getting a OLPC laptop?

[Mike Miller]

On Mon, 12 Nov 2007, Jonathan King wrote:

> On 11/12/07, Mike Miller <mbmiller at taxa.epi.umn.edu> wrote:
>>
>> I can see why it is a tricky problem from their perspective.  I could 
>> work out scams like this:  I'll pay $200 each to ship to Ecuador, but 
>> in Ecuador, they'll pay $100 to ship them back to me and I'll send them 
>> $200 in exchange.  Then I'll sell them here on Ebay for $300 -- 
>> everyone makes money but the poor kids lose.  That would be a nefarious 
>> scheme, but I would not put it past some people.
>
> Uh...what are you talking about? Nobody "loses" in the scheme you 
> suggest unless the unit one cost of the laptop is being subsidized 
> somehow.

Sure, the poor kids in Ecuador don't get a laptop.  In fact, with the 
scheme I described, no poor kid gets a laptop.  Why is that hard to 
understand?


> There's also an issue that if people in the US are willing to pay $300 
> for these, then (wait for it...) charge them $300 for one, and then the 
> Ecuador ruse disappears.

Right, but they are willing to pay $400 for one (at least if it helps a 
poor child somewhere), so selling them for $400 is better - one laptop for 
a poor child for each one sold, but at $300, they'd have to sell two to 
have one for a poor child.  There is also the issue of manufacturing -- if 
they can sell 100 million of them, they might not be able to make 100 
million of them.  So they need to reserve some for the poor children, 
which was the point of the whole program in the first place.


> The thing that seems really screwy here is that they are somehow afraid 
> of asking a market price for these in the US. Instead, they have this 
> weird "buy one, give one away" scheme that is just plain awkward.

It might be a legal issue.  If they are a laptop sales business, they are 
not a charitable agency and they have to forgo certain benefits.


> There are apparently people who are very interested in donating money 
> for them to reach their goals, and governments who are interested in the 
> project as well. This is nice. There are also people who are very 
> interested in the machine for reasons that have nothing to do with the 
> charity project. That's even better: make money off of them, and use the 
> profits to do more good.

I think they might have very good reasons for not becoming an ordinary 
computer company.  For one, it might have been stipulated earlier when 
they were getting support from various charities.  It also would 
completely change what they are about.

Why doesn't every charity just become a big company selling something and 
then use their profits for charitable work?  I see nothing wrong with 
non-profit charitable organizations.

Mike