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Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

coindesk.com

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Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#211

Post by pineaux »

toephu2 wrote: post #170
Johnny555 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep pointing to Armstrong's $110M house like it's some sort of injustice. If you think billionaires should exist at all, then that's one of the least-bad injustices imaginable Ok, I'll admit it, billionaires should not exist at all, there should be a heavy wealth tax that makes it hard to become a billionaire. Will a CEO work less hard if he (and his peers) can only ever gain $100M in net worth before a wealt…

> there should be a heavy wealth tax that makes it hard to become a billionaire Why does everyone want to tax the billionaires? What are you going to get out of it? Do you think taxing the billionaires is actually going to help the poor people? If so, riddle me this: Name one efficiently-run government organization.

Well, its easy then: dont give it to government organisations, just give the money to other people directly in the form of a basic income. Set up a commercial bank owned by all the people of the US of A (you get one share when born and the share is non-fungible/non-tradeable) then let this bank fund small and medium bussinesses only. They are responsible for the majority of the work anyway. Tax land as well. Profits go to the shareholders and a well pages CEO, who also pays a hefty income tax. Rinse repeat. Set the maximum to a set multiple of the minimum. So you could become a billionaire theoretically, you Just have to make all Americans millionairs first.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#212

Post by systemvoltage »

Johnny555 wrote: post #45
sillysaurusx wrote: post #15

I think if employees feel slighted by being fired, they're fooling themselves. The best mindset is that you could be gone tomorrow. It gives you clarity and purpose. It also happens to be the truth. Coinbase was also extremely generous with severance. 12 weeks plus two for every one year at the company, I think. I've had the experience of being let go without notice and without severance. Devs seem a little more griz…

People keep pointing to Armstrong's $110M house like it's some sort of injustice. If you think billionaires should exist at all, then that's one of the least-bad injustices imaginable Ok, I'll admit it, billionaires should not exist at all, there should be a heavy wealth tax that makes it hard to become a billionaire. Will a CEO work less hard if he (and his peers) can only ever gain $100M in net worth before a wealt…

We need more billionaires to exist. They create wealth through enterprise.

It is astounding how many people naively just think "Too much money = bad". Billionaires don't really have cash sitting in their houses. They created companies, often from scratch, that wouldn't otherwise exist.

https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth

GDP per capita grew because the wealth was created, not stolen. The entire pie got larger. We lifted people out of poverty from 90% in 19th century to what it is today 10% through capitalism and trade.

We need more billionaires to create wealth and propel society forward.

Crony billionaires, politicians, inheritance wealth, etc. need to be condemned and we usually throw the baby with the bath water along with the whole tub.

Billionaire hate is getting out of control because people are convinced naively. I suspect some malaise in economics education.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#213

Post by whimsicalism »

adastra22 wrote: post #203
whimsicalism wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the rock, it is now worth 1 billion dollars. I take out a 50 million dollar loan from the rock and put it into the stock market, which lets say has 2% average real returns over interest (probably low if i have 1 billion in collateral). I pass the rock on to my children and die 20 years later. The 50 million is now worth 74 million. Both the rock and 74 million are stepped up to their current value when I pass…

Your issue here is the cost-basis step-up on inheritance, not anything to do with loans.

I was just explaining how tax deference can be tax avoidance.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#215

Post by ghshephard »

tomcam wrote: post #62
Johnny555 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep pointing to Armstrong's $110M house like it's some sort of injustice. If you think billionaires should exist at all, then that's one of the least-bad injustices imaginable Ok, I'll admit it, billionaires should not exist at all, there should be a heavy wealth tax that makes it hard to become a billionaire. Will a CEO work less hard if he (and his peers) can only ever gain $100M in net worth before a wealt…

There are plenty of people in the world who would think that anything over $500/month is way more than enough for one person. Should your compensation be reduced to that amount? Does someone earning more than you hurt you? Also… do billionaires employ people? Do you want their employees to have their jobs seized from them when the johny555 tax goes into effect?

> Does someone earning more than you hurt you?

Yes. Because they can afford private schooling, legal and medical care that the bottom 90% cannot because those services are privatized and only available to the very wealthy. If the ruling class/wealthy who controlled the system could not depend on their vast wealth for great schools for their children, health and legal protection - then all of a sudden the social system would be spectacular, and everyone would benefit.

Inequality is poisonous because it creates massive disincentives to create a working socialized health, education, legal system....

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#216

Post by oh_sigh »

evanlivingston wrote: post #108
oh_sigh wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just a run of the mill average joe, who has a rock that has been in my family for generations. Turns out some weird little cult likes my rock and wants to buy it for $1B. Should I be forced to sell my rock, because I'm getting a $500M tax bill from the government because some weird little cult said they would pay $1B for it - regardless of whether I want to sell my rock?

Yes? Whether you're receiving the value of the asset or not, you're locking up the value of the asset and preventing a larger group of people from benefiting from the value of the asset, which is sort of the point of a wealth tax.

What is the locked up value of the rock? I like it because it reminds me of my grandfather, and the cult that will buy it will lock it in their storage room.

My point is: With a wealth tax, anyone with money can take anything they want from anyone without money, even if the person without money doesn't value something in the same way that the person with money does.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#217

Post by [deleted] »

toephu2 wrote: post #170
Johnny555 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep pointing to Armstrong's $110M house like it's some sort of injustice. If you think billionaires should exist at all, then that's one of the least-bad injustices imaginable Ok, I'll admit it, billionaires should not exist at all, there should be a heavy wealth tax that makes it hard to become a billionaire. Will a CEO work less hard if he (and his peers) can only ever gain $100M in net worth before a wealt…

> there should be a heavy wealth tax that makes it hard to become a billionaire Why does everyone want to tax the billionaires? What are you going to get out of it? Do you think taxing the billionaires is actually going to help the poor people? If so, riddle me this: Name one efficiently-run government organization.

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#218

Post by corrral »

toephu2 wrote: post #184
xtracto wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are plenty of people in the world who would think that anything over $500/month is way more than enough for one person. Should your compensation be reduced to that amount? Disclaimer: I live in a 3rd world country and my salary is 1/3 of what the standard US salary is. YES, I do believe that everybody's compensation (including mine) who are in the top 10% of the population should be decreased/limited. Provide…

> if it meant equalizing opportunities for everybody It doesn't though. Taxing the rich, limiting the existence of billionaires is not going to do anything for equalizing opportunities. If you think so, then please tell me the name of one efficiently-run government organization?

> It doesn't though. Taxing the rich, limiting the existence of billionaires is not going to do anything for equalizing opportunities.

> If you think so, then please tell me the name of one efficiently-run government organization?

How are these two passages connected? If there's one efficiently-run government organization (there are, even in the US—benefits programs tend to be quite efficient, contrary to "common knowledge") then that proves... what? That taxing the rich would equalize opportunities? The two things have practically nothing to do with one another.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#219

Post by FabHK »

jfoutz wrote: post #185
toephu2 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there should be a heavy wealth tax that makes it hard to become a billionaire Why does everyone want to tax the billionaires? What are you going to get out of it? Do you think taxing the billionaires is actually going to help the poor people? If so, riddle me this: Name one efficiently-run government organization.

Medicare?

Funnily enough, virtually all health insurance systems world wide have a higher government component than the US one, and better outcomes at a lower cost.

(Spot the outlier on the first graph: https://ourworldindata.org/the-link-between-life-expectancy-... )

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#220

Post by izzydata »

philodelta wrote: post #198
tomcam wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much money should people be allowed to have?

I worry about the unaccounted soft power of someone with that much money. Through lobbying and market consolidation, the extremely wealthy hold disproportionate political and economic power. At least with corrupt politicians, in a liberal democracy there is some amount to which they are accountable to the people. The power of the wealthy is without account except through government action. laisse-faire capitalists li…

I agree with this. I don't care when someone has 1000 cars or 100 houses and owns a jet plane or whatever. I do care about how it enables them to unfairly direct other peoples lives to their personal agenda. I also care when people have too little that they can barely feed themselves and have nowhere to live.

I feel like there must be some way these two problems can help solve eachother.

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