271–280 of 291 posts
I still can't believe this guy gets to walk away with 1.7 billion dollars just for building up fluff while all the people who helped him grow have dire consequences both financial and personal. Unbelievable that this guy gets a clean chit, and all this isn't considered criminal. This to me is almost at the scale of Theranos. Only, this guy was smarter in the legal side of things, perhaps.
Hypothesis: Events like this are the modern moral equivalent of the giant, gaudy, gilt-encrusted palaces of the 17th century. Economic disparity has reached a point where those at the top end literally have more money than they know what to do with and are increasingly spending it on stupider and stupider things out of some perceived need to do something .
Events like this are the modern moral equivalent of the giant, gaudy, gilt-encrusted palaces of the 17th century. I think this vastly overstates it. Versailles cost some significant fraction of France's GDP - possibly as much as 25% in some years. WeWork's $10B is a mere drop in the US' $20T GDP.
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This would upset me if I was one of the remaining employees.
Good point! Google says there are 15k employees at WeWork, how about EVERYONE gets 50k. 750M given away, still have a billion dollars and a bunch of goodwill.
I still can't believe this guy gets to walk away with 1.7 billion dollars just for building up fluff while all the people who helped him grow have dire consequences both financial and personal. Unbelievable that this guy gets a clean chit, and all this isn't considered criminal. This to me is almost at the scale of Theranos. Only, this guy was smarter in the legal side of things, perhaps.
That's definitely a glass half empty way to look at this;
On the other hand, with 20/20 hindsight, knowing it was selling space it rented for a $.80 for $1 of cost, knowing that this hype meant and in a low unemployment time means that these were effectively a jobs program, with above average market salaries, funded by Softbank (and the Saudis).
Also a jobs program for any companies that would have paid $1/$1 of office space but saved the discount.
And, from a being laid off perspective; while it's not fun to have a job end at someone else's discretion, if you worked at WeWork and the August headlines weren't a hint to get the resume ready, I'm not sure what else might; Effectively, 4+ months of notice combined with now actual severance.
The downstream effects of this are probably worse from a capitalism / worker piece; As WeWork reduces leasing office space, buildings or service companies will likely pocket the contract termination fees while reducing jobs/hours of contract staff -- who, unlike wework employees, were closer to minimum wage, may not even have benefits, and definitely won't get severance.
If I'm Neumann, I'm taking 200-250 million dollars of my 1.7 billion in winnings and giving it away to the laid off employees (about 90k each). Imagine the positive press you could drum up about yourself! All while keeping 1.5 billion dollars!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Events like this are the modern moral equivalent of the giant, gaudy, gilt-encrusted palaces of the 17th century. I think this vastly overstates it. Versailles cost some significant fraction of France's GDP - possibly as much as 25% in some years. WeWork's $10B is a mere drop in the US' $20T GDP.
Not to mention Versailles was built with taxpayers money.
If you assume that the government needs $X to perform its function then when tax rates are cut for corporations and those wealthy enough to game the system, its everyone else whose taxes pay the shortfall. The reason there is so much money floating around the top end is specifically because they've figured out how to foist their tax burden onto others.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
“WeWork isn’t really a real estate company. It’s a state of consciousness, a generation of interconnected emotionally intelligent entrepreneurs.” -Adam Neumann.[1] Even after hearing that media raved about him/WeWork, analysts were bullish and investors pumped Billions. Startup media are generally happy with their funding related news as it is glamorous. And due to the funding noise, Startup ecosystem has forgotten t…
I don't understand how that doesn't trip the bullshit detectors of anyone that still has money to invest in the first place. That's language I'd expect from someone flogging a pyramid scheme.
I can't fathom the morale at this place. I really hope things get better for these poor people caught in the middle of this shit show.
I wish I had gotten that level of sympathy as a software engineer at an investment bank in 2008. In fact, rather than sympathy, more often I was told I was the problem.
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I'd love to see you try. It's easy to turn $20 into $40, but as you approach larger numbers it keeps getting harder.
Completely untrue. Even if all you do is take advantage of the investment opportunities that someone with, say, a million dollars get access to that someone with 20 doesn't, it's easy to grow large amounts of money. "To turn $100 into $110 is work. To turn 100 million into $110 million is inevitable". Edgar Bronfman
Earning a steady 10% is really fucking tough. It's kind of a joke, really,
Getting anything resembling decent investment return is god damn hard.
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shifting of talent I hate this new reality.
Which new reality? The one where most of the population can read and write and where most hold degrees and diplomas? This isn’t the 1900s industrialization era, where employees were picked out of the farm fields to work in factories, having never gone to school. People are smart these days, layoffs aren’t as destructive as they used to be.