Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more • Hacker News Board

Re: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more

#401

Post by drak0n1c » Wed, Apr 29, 2020, 10:31 PM UTC

james-mcelwain wrote: post #273

Acrobatic_Road wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Mercatus Center fiscal rankings, 4 out of 5 of the bottom 5 fiscal performers are run by democrats: illinois, new jersey, conneticut and massachusets. Kansas, a red state, is the outlier. https://www.mercatus.org/publications/urban-economics/state-...

Mercatus is a Koch funded think tank -- hardly unbiased and a poor source here.

It would be better if you countered the statistical method used in the analysis. Otherwise your point is no better than someone saying "Soros donated to this think tank, therefore invalid".

Re: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more

#402

Post by skybrian » Wed, Apr 29, 2020, 10:34 PM UTC

mikepurvis wrote: post #165

wonderwonder wrote: post #121

Layoffs are mounting, alternative work is limited, and the unemployment systems in many states are either broken or running out of funding. Add the federal governments indicated desire to let blue states go bankrupt and we are looking at a good combination to enter a depression. Its a pretty sobering time.

There was an interesting piece in this week's Atlantic on the motivation for having states declare bankruptcy: "Under the Constitution, bankruptcy is a power entirely reserved to the federal government. An American bankruptcy is overseen in federal court, by a federal judge, according to federal law. That’s why federal law can allow U.S. cities to go bankrupt, as many have done over the years. That’s why the financia…

Is it legal for a state to declare bankruptcy or would Congress have to pass a law? It doesn't seem like the House would be interested.

Re: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more

#403

Post by dkdk8283 » Wed, Apr 29, 2020, 10:34 PM UTC

wonderwonder wrote: post #121

Layoffs are mounting, alternative work is limited, and the unemployment systems in many states are either broken or running out of funding. Add the federal governments indicated desire to let blue states go bankrupt and we are looking at a good combination to enter a depression. Its a pretty sobering time.

Why only let blue states go bankrupt?

Re: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more

#404

Post by killjoywashere » Wed, Apr 29, 2020, 10:35 PM UTC

mikepurvis wrote: post #165

wonderwonder wrote: post #121

Layoffs are mounting, alternative work is limited, and the unemployment systems in many states are either broken or running out of funding. Add the federal governments indicated desire to let blue states go bankrupt and we are looking at a good combination to enter a depression. Its a pretty sobering time.

There was an interesting piece in this week's Atlantic on the motivation for having states declare bankruptcy: "Under the Constitution, bankruptcy is a power entirely reserved to the federal government. An American bankruptcy is overseen in federal court, by a federal judge, according to federal law. That’s why federal law can allow U.S. cities to go bankrupt, as many have done over the years. That’s why the financia…

Interesting that the author is not a Democrat: David Frum was a speechwriter for George W. Bush.

Re: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more

#405

Post by ac29 » Wed, Apr 29, 2020, 10:36 PM UTC

tehjoker wrote: post #399

Shivetya wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His unwillingness to not solve the state's pension problems should be applauded. the amount of unfunded liabilities is in the hundreds of billions of dollars and approaching a trillion if it has not passed that already. This all happened because the number of public servants who are pulling in over 100k has skyrocketed... 100k+ in retirement.. with millions past 50k! Think about that 50k in pay plus medical. These pe…

Seriously? We're going to blame old people for not wanting to live in poverty while the heights of the economy sequester trillions of dollars in a power law curve?

Many pensions are not the "have $27k/yr starting at age 67" kind, but the "have $100k/yr + benefits starting at age 55" kind. Its the latter that people find upsetting - nothing close to poverty level.

Re: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more

#406

Post by dkdk8283 » Wed, Apr 29, 2020, 10:38 PM UTC

cleandreams wrote: post #291

bilbo0s wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, right now there seems to be a disturbing pattern of the world falling apart at the end of every GOP administration. This is problematic, because we still need the GOP so that we can vote out democrats when they mismanage the nation's affairs. We can't have one party, that's not safe for us as the citizenry for obvious reasons. At the same time, we can't have this, "the world ends", at the end of every G…

Single party rule in California has been an improvement. We have a functioning government. Kinda helps in a pandemic. When we got rid of our last Republican governor we paid down our debt and California entered this dire period with a big reserve. The notion that some sort of optimal condition is reached by trashing government is just a clueless and stupid idea.

I left California long ago because it’s so polarized towards blue. I share different ideals and tend to get ostracized for them - not a community I want to be part of.

Re: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more

#407

Post by notauser554 » Wed, Apr 29, 2020, 10:39 PM UTC

cactus2093 wrote: post #362

Shivetya wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His unwillingness to not solve the state's pension problems should be applauded. the amount of unfunded liabilities is in the hundreds of billions of dollars and approaching a trillion if it has not passed that already. This all happened because the number of public servants who are pulling in over 100k has skyrocketed... 100k+ in retirement.. with millions past 50k! Think about that 50k in pay plus medical. These pe…

To be fair, in SF for example the median income is $96,000. And I think that's take-home salary, so the median cost to the employer with benefits is well over $100k. It doesn't seem at all unreasonable that important city workers should make at least the area median wage. Having all of the local government employees be the lowest paid people in the city doesn't seem like a good thing. It is also kind of shocking to s…

"And of course government workers have a strong reputation for not being incentivized to work very hard or do more than the bare minimum."

This reminds me of my friend who got an engineering job for the government after university. He was motivated at the start, going above and beyond to make sure his projects were completed on time and in good order. One day his boss called him in and asked him to change his schedule. The boss said he was making his co-workers feel bad. So the new schedule was to be take a 2 hour lunch and do something else for 2 hours, like play video games, to align his work output with the rest of the department.

Re: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more

#408

Post by altoidaltoid » Wed, Apr 29, 2020, 10:42 PM UTC

mrnobody_67 wrote: post #373

Shivetya wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His unwillingness to not solve the state's pension problems should be applauded. the amount of unfunded liabilities is in the hundreds of billions of dollars and approaching a trillion if it has not passed that already. This all happened because the number of public servants who are pulling in over 100k has skyrocketed... 100k+ in retirement.. with millions past 50k! Think about that 50k in pay plus medical. These pe…

I ran across that Forbes article yesterday as well... amazing data: "71,000 public employees at every level of Illinois government received six-figure paychecks. Additionally, 23,000 retirees pulled down more than $100,000 in annual pensions."

Consider also that alot of retirees don't stay in Illinois as well. So other states are benefiting from the discretionary spending funded by Illinois taxpayers

Re: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more

#409

Post by mrnobody_67 » Wed, Apr 29, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #337

lonelappde wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should the Federal government return tax money it took from the people of New York to give to the people of Kentucky? Why or why or why not? The Federal government can easily tax /discredit those wealthy pensioners to fund unemployment insurance, if they do choose.

It's amazing that the US Federal government seems to be able to provide trillions of dollars in liquidity on a moment's notice to anyone and everyone - except the states. Airlines? Of course. Junk bond investors? Sure, why not? States? "We're not going to bail out Democratic-run states."

Don't forget Carnival Cruise Lines... which doesn't even pay any taxes in the US as a corporation since it flies a flag of convenience and doesn't employ many Americans.

Re: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more

#410

Post by artificial » Wed, Apr 29, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #337

lonelappde wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should the Federal government return tax money it took from the people of New York to give to the people of Kentucky? Why or why or why not? The Federal government can easily tax /discredit those wealthy pensioners to fund unemployment insurance, if they do choose.

It's amazing that the US Federal government seems to be able to provide trillions of dollars in liquidity on a moment's notice to anyone and everyone - except the states. Airlines? Of course. Junk bond investors? Sure, why not? States? "We're not going to bail out Democratic-run states."

It would be immensely helpful to see uniforms with all of the campaign contributions each has like a race car driver so you know who butters their bread.