Future of Murphy vs. Krugman debate uncertain

[Occam's Banana]

Although the goal of $100,000 in pledges for the Bob Murphy vs. Paul Krugman debate challenge was met, it sadly appears that Bob is going to have to "reboot" and start all over from $0.00 - if he bothers at all. The pledge site/service (thepoint.com) has apparently gone belly-up.



From Bob Murhpy's blog: http://consultingbyrpm.com/blog/2013...te-update.html

Krugman Debate Update

Well, I adopted a laissez-faire approach to see if this problem would magically cure itself, but alas, it looks like it’s here to stay. With no notice, the entire site ThePoint.com went defunct. This was the third-party host of the pledges for my debate challenge to Paul Krugman.

In the grand scheme, this actually isn’t a big deal (for those who like the campaign), since I was eventually going to have to alter the original terms anyway. In the original version, Krugman would have had to debate me in Auburn, AL in order to fulfill the terms of the pledge, making it that much more unlikely.

Still, it’s a shame to have ThePoint go down, now that the pledge total was over $107,000 (highest I saw).

Now that we are starting from scratch, I’m seeking your input on a few key matters:

==> Should I continue with this tomfoolery, or just move on with my life, now that I’ve made my point (such as it was)? When answering, keep in mind that there are still lots of funny videos I had in mind. On the downside, even I’m getting sick of talking about Paul Krugman; I don’t want to be 65 and still have people come up after a talk and say, “So when is Krugman going to debate you?!”

==> If I start up a new pledge drive, which site should host it? I want it to have the same feature as ThePoint offered, where people don’t actually pay anything unless a set of specific conditions occur.

==> If I start a new pledge drive, what should be the philanthropic endeavor? I had originally picked the Fresh Food Program at the NYC Food Bank (with their blessing–I checked with their Development person back when I started), but it runs the risk of seeming like we’re making a joke about poverty. So, is there some other entity whom Krugman’s fans would love to see receive $100,000+, but yet my fans wouldn’t mind enriching?

[Warlord]

He raises some legitimate points. It's a shame the site went belly-up.

I doubt Krugman will ever debate Murphy even if the pledges exceeded millions of dollars.