Use the money on Jonathan Stark's Starbucks card

You can save the image of Jonathan Starks' Starbucks card onto your phone and use it at Starbucks. He encourages it. Or if you are feeling like if you are in a giving mood, you can put money on the card. Check out @jonathanscard to see how much money is currently on the card.

What a great idea! I totally want to put five bucks on this card. But then what if someone hacks this account and gets all the payment methods? That account has my payment information. You know how amazon has a list of all your different payment methods? I would not want my payment information on some account that millions of people have access to.

The more i think about it, people could just donate money to a worthy cause. This starbucks thing is neat in its method, but really the motivation is to give. So you are giving so someone can have a coffee. Ok. That's cool. But if you really want to give, why not give to people who need it. Most people who go to Starbucks don't really need the extra money. And ultimately, you really aren't giving to that person, you are giving to Starbucks. I don't think Starbucks really needs donations.

But there is the intangible of the overall effect of making people more giving. And perhaps that's really the bigger story here. I could get wrapped up in the details of who gets it and such, but then that makes me more miserly. I'd rather have a society where everyone was more free-giving. So in that sense, I give this project a thumbs up.

Do you think this project is lame for giving money to Starbucks? Or do you think it's cool that it makes people be in a more giving mood?