This is perhaps part of a lesson they're trying to teach.

Every one of us can think of ways this money, or any lump of money, could be put to good use. But instead it's being used to dig a huge hole.

And the same thought can be applied to many things in our economy. Gargantuan wastes of resources that __could__ be used to do good, but are instead squandered on pointless work. And none of us do anything about it, we just sit around and go "herp derp let the market solve everything".

This stunt highlights some of the naked stupidity of our society and how it allocates resources.

Seems similar, since the average startup temporarily employs people and results in nothing (although over a longer period of time).

The opportunity cost of the people digging the hole should be lower, and at the end, at least they'll have a hole. A clear win over the median startup.

Besides, they are literally changing the world.

Awe, hey we end up with more than a empty hole! What about all of the dead code!

Also often wastes fuel, time and other precious resources manufacturing physical swag that will end up in trash cans after the company inevitably dies. Externalities of the hole are at least related to the hole itself.

ahahha! Indeed, good point. Startup economy consists in a lot of hole digging...

And I'm sure someone somewhere is depressed by the fact that some startup's funding could be used to feed thousands of starving children instead.

Or dig a deeper hole.

That would be depressing if that was the only $77k out there, in the grand scheme of finances that amount is ridiculously small.

Existing startups won't get any less money and research won't get any less grants because some folks take donations to dig a hole :)

is that startup going to force 1,000s of creative people to stop what they are doing and think about something broader for a few minutes?

it's genius

Yea, but we get a hole out of this, so I'd say it's a net win.

True, but most startups leave the world worse than they found it. At least this way all that happens is a hole gets dug.

Well those $77k are helping run CAH! They are making a huge profit on this, and they deserve every penny of it :)

I think you're vastly underestimating the cost of the equipment, land, operators etc. The three pieces of heavy equipment would be >$5000/day. Plus 3 shifts of 3 skilled people would be another $1500/day. Plus the cost of the land, I'd guess they have 5-10 acres, and even super cheap land in the US is $1000/acre. Plus stripe fees. So $75k after fees - $10k in land - at least $6500/day and the current numbers will have them going for 3 days so $20k. If they make $30k in profit on this I'll be very surprised.

They did have a Black Friday sale once where everything was marked up. IIRC, they had some pretty impressive sales that day. They also did one where you send them money and get nothing in return (a donation?).

good chance the hole diggers are ex-google or ex-facebook or ex-something with boatloads of money.