Money, Money, Money!

Kickstarter has become more successful than I would have guessed it would. If you're unfamiliar, the idea is to allow a variety of endeavors to solicit the money they need in order to reach fruition. Commonly, a certain sum is named, and thus commences a fundraising drive to reach that number. If I understand correctly, the money is only released to the campaigner if they secured commitments sufficient to reach it, or else the money returns to donors.

That's the thing that bothers me, is the whole charitable slant of the thing. If we were talking about a purely charitable venture, I'd appreciate the value of the thing. If it was a childrens' hospital we were trying to get off the ground, I'd be supportive. That's not something that I would see ultimately generating profits for the solicitor, and so the offer of a tote bag would be a good enough enticement to loosen my purse strings, more than likely.

That's not what you tend to see on Kickstarter, in my experience. It's more likely to be something like a movie the people are hoping to make. I presume that they expect to make money on the thing, or else I don't understand their motivations. Sure, there's the art, but one has to be practical as well as idealistic. The point is that I'm not too interested in giving away money to someone who intends to apply it towards making a profit for themselves.

It seems like you used to have to cut people in on that profit at the end if you were to have a chance of getting capital from them at the outset. By and large, you now seem to be able to get the money just by giving away a copy of whatever you're making and an honorary title of some kind. I just don't like that. If I were going to make a contribution, I'd expect a percentage of whatever the thing yields. I don't happen to see myself as a cold-hearted capitalist, but if that's what my opinions make me, so be it.