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

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

#491

Post by dantheman » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 1:45 AM UTC

notyourday wrote: post #301

mikepurvis wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of that tension is what's led to the the current situation with COVID— the federal government is where the CDC is, so there's an expectation that they're the ones providing centralized coordination and guidance for a measured, unified, national response. If each state has its own version of the CDC (and other similar agencies), then that's fine, but they also need to have a lot more sovereignty over things like…

> but they also need to have a lot more sovereignty over things like (in this case) being able to close their borders to neighbouring states Commerce Clause of the US Constitution stands in a way. It (the Commerce Clause) has been a bedrock of the federal government pushing through progressive policies onto the states.

The commerce clause and related federal growth are all a result from FDR. It's why we have a war on drugs, it's why the government can seem to do anything. It once required amendments for the government to do new things - a government of enumerated powers, now it can do anything.

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

#492

Post by jlbnjmn » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 1:45 AM UTC

clintonb wrote: post #225

stephencoyner wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this exists today, but what Amazon would be buying is faster time to expansion. If they need drivers now (which is an assumption, I don't know this to be a fact) Lyft gives them an established network incredibly fast. So obviously the price would have to be right and of course Amazon wouldn't be paying a large premium.

An advertising campaign to attract drivers is probably a lot cheaper than buying Lyft.

A simple press release would do the trick.

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

#493

Post by dantheman » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 1:47 AM UTC

afterburner wrote: post #298

bilbo0s wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't. There is a comfort that comes from the instability of party switches. The parties don't cooperate, which means less can get done. Anything that puts anyone in an area where one of the gangs of politicians can actually do something, is to be avoided. We've learned that the hard way in Wisconsin. As a general rule, it's always best to split up your government as much as you can.

Less gets done means the country gets worse and people get more radicalized trying to improve things. The polarization in the US is likely a direct result of the massive deadlock. Your strategy is one guaranteed to ruin your country.

The government has continued to spend more and more and continue fighting wars around the world; so despite their disagreements in public -- they seem to agree a whole lot.

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

#494

Post by Acrobatic_Road » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 1:48 AM UTC

james-mcelwain wrote: post #462

drak0n1c wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Their "list" is basically just a list of states with debt, that completely ignores their ability to issue new debt and generate revenue (i.e. that people actually want to live in California and not Kansas), while ignoring the fact that many of these states with "balanced budgets" provide basically no services and are liable to getting wrecked in times of crisis. I mean, the fact that Kansas is so high on this list sh…

>Their "list" is basically just a list of states with debt, that completely ignores their ability to issue new debt and generate revenue (i.e. that people actually want to live in California and not Kansas)

Do they? I'll grant you that nobody wants to live in Kansas. It had a net migration of −4.32% between 2017-2018. But California doesn't fair much better at −3.95%. People are also fleeing Illinois, Connecticut and Massachusetts (all in the bottom 5 as give by Mercatus) in record numbers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...

As people leave these state, it certainly does impact their ability to raise revenue, and this is compounded by how many blue states rely on progressive taxation.

>I mean, the fact that Kansas is so high on this list should tell you all you need to know.

But Kansas is a special case. Their pension funds were crippled by particularly bad mismanagement and corruption. The question you should be asking is why are the other bottom 5 blue states?

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

#495

Post by malnourish » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 1:52 AM UTC

newfriend wrote: post #414

matchbok wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The media's job is not to fawn over the president, actually. They are to report the news and tell the people when the president lies. Therefore, they are doing a great job. By the way, the most watched cable news is Fox News. I assume you aren't talking about them?

> The media's job is not to fawn over the president I wonder if you felt the same way from 2008 to 2016 when they were fawning over the previous president. It's interesting that they do a great job only when a certain political party happens to be in power. It's easy to be the most watched cable news when every other mainstream channel is carrying water for the opposition party.

Have you ever considered that perhaps reality actually does align more closely with how the media portrays it than the exact opposite?

Just _perhaps_ Republican presidents are worse than Democrat presidents?

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

#496

Post by clivestaples » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 1:58 AM UTC

dantheman wrote: post #487

clivestaples wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw that a hundred times at a small school district in Southern California. As retirement nears (age 55-59), take a promotion from the classroom to the district office, and a $50-75K pay raise. Three years later, that is the salary used to calculate your pension payments... For life. I live in a neighborhood with two firefighters who were captains, retired at 50, and make over $100K a year. It's totally unsustainab…

It's generational wealth transfer from the young and poor to the old and relatively rich. It should be called fraud and theft, because that's what it is.

It is absolutely fraud. The whole idea of public service is that you make sacrifices on the front-end, the public takes care of you through benefits and retirement. There were kindergarten teachers making $120K a year for 6.5 hours per day and ~180 days year. True, they had a masters and 15+ years of experience.

EDIT: The often worked much more hours.

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

#497

Post by wefarrell » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:03 AM UTC

hkai wrote: post #483

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.

Perhaps locking up young people at home due to a disease with a 0.05% death rate for people below 60 was not a great idea after all.

That death rate would be significantly higher if hospitals didn't have the capacity to treat patients. Mortality rates for non COVID19 related cases would also go way up.

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

#498

Post by bhupy » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:14 AM UTC

burner831234 wrote: post #484

notyourday wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but they also need to have a lot more sovereignty over things like (in this case) being able to close their borders to neighbouring states Commerce Clause of the US Constitution stands in a way. It (the Commerce Clause) has been a bedrock of the federal government pushing through progressive policies onto the states.

The analogy to keep in mind is very simple. If you live in a house of five and each person buys their own groceries and cooks their own dinner, it does not matter how you scrimp and save. It is still cheaper on the whole to buy raw ingredients for dinner and make it for five people. The cost goes down dramatically> Yes there is a CDC in every state. It would be utterly ludicrous spend of cash to have an independent,…

> If you live in a house of five and each person buys their own groceries and cooks their own dinner, it does not matter how you scrimp and save. It is still cheaper on the whole to buy raw ingredients for dinner and make it for five people. The cost goes down dramatically>

This makes sense, but what about one level up? I live in an apartment building, and in our building each family buys their own groceries and cooks their own dinner. It does not matter how much you scrimp and save, it is still cheaper on the whole for the building to buy raw ingredients and make dinner for all families. The cost goes down dramatically.

This also makes sense, but what about one level up? If each building buys groceries and cooks dinner for all of their homes, it does not matter how much they scrimp and save. It is still cheaper on the whole for the entire city buy raw ingredients for dinner and make it for all of the buildings and their families. The cost goes down dramatically.

This also makes sense, but what about one level up? If each city buys groceries and cooks dinner for all of their buildings and homes, it does not matter how much they scrimp and save. It is still cheaper on the whole for the entire State to buy raw ingredients for dinner and make it for all of the cities, their buildings and their families. The cost goes down dramatically.

This also makes sense, but what about one level up? If each State buys groceries and cooks dinner for all of their buildings and homes, it does not matter how much they scrimp and save. It is still cheaper on the whole for the entire Union to buy raw ingredients for dinner and make it for all of the States, cities, their buildings and their families. The cost goes down dramatically.

This also makes sense, but what about one level up? If each Union/country buys groceries and cooks dinner for all of their buildings and homes, it does not matter how much they scrimp and save. It is still cheaper on the whole for the entire world to buy raw ingredients for dinner and make it for all of the nations, States, cities, their buildings and their families. The cost goes down dramatically.

We both agree that at some point, this stopped making sense. The question is: is an ideologically divided Union of 330 million people across 50 states with their own Constitutions and governments equivalent to a “house of five”?

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

#499

Post by coleifer » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:20 AM UTC

seattle_spring wrote: post #482

coleifer wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virus going to do what it's going to do. People can choose to stay home but this shelter in place stuff is wrecking the lives of the poor and the people who are most vulnerable.

Pretty sure healthcare costs and, you know, being dead might affect them more than losing their job.

Save your sarcasm for your followers. Imagine being memed into believing forcing people to stay home is better than letting people choose.

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

#500

Post by lokar » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:24 AM UTC

Shivetya wrote: post #304

mikepurvis wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

IMO the issue is pensions are worked out by elected officials who will be long out off office when the bill is due. This encourages dishonest accounting wrt needed present day finding levels.

One fix would be to require that all future obligations be funded up front. Make the pension as generous as you like, but deposit the cash now. If you invest the money and do well, the state can just keep that, but don't assume positive returns.