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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

#231

Post by fairity »

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…

> Will a CEO work less hard if he (and his peers) can only ever gain $100M in net worth before a wealth tax on assets kicks in?

Yes. You would increasingly see founders depart their companies as soon as a heavy wealth tax kicks in. It’s difficult to prove that this would have large net negative impact on overall well-being, but I imagine it would.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#232

Post by uncomputation »

daenz wrote: post #11
a4isms wrote: post #4

Would this be the Coinbase whose CEO just spent $133 million on a home? https://www.ibtimes.com/inside-coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrongs... Capitalism is a harsh mistress.

There's nothing wrong with people collectively giving someone money.

If Armstrong was the sole CTO, COO, CPO, CLO, designer, marketer, advertiser, programmer, and researcher, then yes, all money should go to him. But Coinbase was made what it is by many people, the majority of which have nothing close to wealth Armstrong enjoys. Why shouldn’t those people be given money?

I agree there should be some incentive for entrepreneurs and the people who make “the business side” work, but doesn’t the degree of difference between Armstrong and his average employee strike you as unfair?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#233

Post by chrisseaton »

Apocryphon wrote: post #221
chrisseaton wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never really happened in my country. The second tier complained at one point, and peacefully reached an agreement with the top tier (Magna Carta.) Other than that top families basically unchanged 1000 years.

Uh, what about the time that Parliament decapitated the king and established a Puritan dictatorship for a minute

> for a minute

Exactly. Didn't really change which broad group of families were in control (some were lowered a peg through taxes for supporting the wrong side.)

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#234

Post by chrisseaton »

jjulius wrote: post #222
chrisseaton wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never really happened in my country. The second tier complained at one point, and peacefully reached an agreement with the top tier (Magna Carta.) Other than that top families basically unchanged 1000 years.

>Never really happened in my country. >Other than that top families basically unchanged 1000 years. So we've shifted the goalposts from "all of human history" to "in my country" and only for the past "1000 years".

> So we've shifted the goalposts

No... why do you think that?

> The top 10% of the population hold 70% of the total wealth.

That's basically been the case everywhere, all the time. In other countries the 'top 10%' has changed hands through revolution, war, etc, but it's still 10% controlling 70% (or whatever) - because they take the last 10%'s 70% and carry on! No goal posts moved there.

Someone asked a separate question about revolution, and I said even that's not successfully happened where I live. I wasn't making a broader point with that answer to that question.

> "all of human history" to "in my country" and only for the past "1000 years"

I mean... are you under some sort of misapprehension that before 1000 and outside of the UK there was some kind of democratic socialist consensus? Fraid not.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#235

Post by Apocryphon »

googlryas wrote: post #230
Apocryphon wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This strawman parable is so elegant in its contrivance that it deserves a Nebula Award.

Can you explain how it is a strawman? I've never seen any kind of wealth tax proposed that takes into account how the wealth was acquired, or what form the wealth was in.

It is an incredibly contrived, fantastical scenario that is too grating to even consider.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#236

Post by [deleted] »

ryandrake wrote: post #138
tomcam wrote: post #62

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? 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?

> 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? This is rhetoric that tries to confuse two totally different scenarios in order to convince the majority to oppose something that only hurts a tiny minority. Saying "one person should not have 5 generations worth of wealth" is not the same…

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#237

Post by kingboss »

elefanten wrote: post #189
kingboss wrote: post #152

Wasn't this guy one of Paul Graham's darlings? Weren't the "geniuses" at YCombinator invested in this pile of trash? I would really like one of those "insightful" posts from pg telling us how to pick winners right about now.

Coinbase is one of the top competitors in its space. They picked a winner. What's your point? Are you confusing the market they're in contracting (alongside the whole market) with them losing?

Top competitors in a scam. Just like NFTs. And boys like pg are into this (both Coinbase and some NFT company that I forgot its name). And you are defending them. And you don't see any problem. And that is the problem. No values was created here. Just moving value around. Usually into the pockets of some already very rich people.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#238

Post by cute_boi »

evandale wrote: post #196
CardenB wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it is less about the tax revenue and more about preventing power imbalance. Why is it good to have so much power concentrated in the hands of one person?

I firmly believe Musk, Gates, and Buffet to name a few do more good with their money than if any government got their hands on it. Not all the billionaires are bad.

Looks like you need to look Shenanigans done by Musk, Gates etc. I don't know that much about Warren Buffet, but the main point is when you are billionaries you can earn kindness etc.. They hire PR agency so that gullible people like them.

They are really not better than government because these people are the one who lobbies government to vest their selfish desires.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#239

Post by heliodor »

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…

Taxing billionaires is a simplistic knee-jerk reaction that doesn't address the actual problems people have. It just feeds people's hate.

Consider that people have a lot of problems with Amazon's practices. So suddenly, everyone is yelling to tax the hell out of Bezos. But no one has the drive to actually plug the holes that allowed him to make so much money in the first place. All kinds of employee injustices, environmental abuses, and whatever else pops up in the news all the time.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#240

Post by azemetre »

adastra22 wrote: post #137
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…

> 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 wealth tax on assets kicks in? In my experience from having known a couple of mega-rich CEOs, yes. Even those who are not principally driven by the money or three-commas social signaling,…

What gives these individuals some sort of divine right over citizens in a democracy? I feel like people are ignoring that human history already went through this period in the era of monarchies and divine rule.

It was a disaster then, it's a disaster now, and it'll be a disaster in the future.

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