Heart-warming Anti-capitalism

The New York Times today had an amusing piece on the meeting of Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist.org, with a bunch of big-money assholes. At the UBS global media conference, Buckmaster fielded questions about how Craigslist plans on "monetizing" its operation, and faced blank stares at his response of "fuck you and your money." I'm sure more than one banker lit himself on fire at the mere thought of such a thing.

Wendy Davis of MediaPost describes the presentation as a “a culture clash of near-epic proportions.” She recounts how UBS analyst Ben Schachter wanted to know how Craigslist plans to maximize revenue. It doesn’t, Mr. Buckmaster replied (perhaps wondering how Mr. Schachter could possibly not already know this). “That definitely is not part of the equation,” he said, according to MediaPost. “It’s not part of the goal.”

This is very refreshing. I know I'm a big ol' Commie and everything, but wow! How unique! Putting your customers and their needs before everything else! Why is that such an outlandish thing? Could other internet ventures be heading in this direction? Probably not.

Read the article here.