Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

coindesk.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 1001 posts

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#241

Post by yunohn »

oh_sigh wrote: post #64
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…

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?

I love how this thread is full of people simping for billionaires with absolutely ridiculous strawman scenarios like this one…

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#242

Post by daenz »

uncomputation wrote: post #232
daenz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 does…

>Why shouldn’t those people be given money?

They were given money: their compensation that they agreed and accepted as being fair payment for their labor.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#243

Post by dabeeeenster »

kamikaz1k wrote: post #159
objclxt wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Coinbase was also extremely generous with severance. 12 weeks plus two for every one year at the company, I think [...] Three and a half months of dev salary is pretty incredible. ...literally this is the minimum they can get away with in some jurisdictions. It's illegal in plenty of countries to conduct mass layoffs without either a consultation period or putting people on garden leave (i.e, severance).

Can you cite a few example jurisdictions? I am just curious because I've seen less before, even for companies with international presence.

In the UK: https://www.gov.uk/staff-redundant/redundancy-consultations

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#244

Post by madrox »

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…

I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm more comfortable with wealth in the hands of progressive billionaires than a government that's likely to go on a regressive tear every four years.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#245

Post by cute_boi »

FabHK wrote: post #224
halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why stop at $100M? Why can't $1M be the most?

Why can you only vote/have sex/drink/gamble when you're 18 yrs? Why not at 12, why not at 30? The fact that there is a gray zone does not mean that no border must be drawn.

Well, there should be some objective parameters to determine such things.

We can't vote/sex/drink/gamble because it is assumed that young people sucks. Maybe looking at the statistics government decided 18 years is good? I think if 12 year old can pass driving test then they should be allowed to drive. If 30 years can't pass, they must not be allowed to drive.

So, how about we find objective paramters to determine what should be the best border to determine the elites? May be it is 100x minimum_salary? There are plenty of option I guess.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#246

Post by endorphine »

madrox wrote: post #244
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…

I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm more comfortable with wealth in the hands of progressive billionaires than a government that's likely to go on a regressive tear every four years.

False dichotomy?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#247

Post by Veen »

madrox wrote: post #244
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…

I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm more comfortable with wealth in the hands of progressive billionaires than a government that's likely to go on a regressive tear every four years.

You're making a big assumption that billionaires are or will remain "progressive," whatever that word means to you.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#248

Post by schlauerfox »

tomcam wrote: post #67
izzydata wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think billionaires should exist, but I also don't think these employees have been wronged. That is a pretty generous severance package.

How much money should people be allowed to have?

" Harrison Bergeron " by Kurt Vonnegut.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#249

Post by RyanHamilton »

criley2 wrote: post #186
chrisseaton wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The top 10% of the population hold 70% of the total wealth. That's just crazy and unsustainable. Been sustained so far throughout all of human history.

Historically it was much, much worse. The only way you can make an argument for saying inequality is greater now (when global poverty/subsistence farming is at the lowest % since human settlement 12000 years ago) is to point to the sheer amount of wealth we generate compared to any other period and nit pick about it's allocation. That's fine, but if you want to go back to farming for your life, like most humans for m…

What source are you basing that on? You can find countless sources that show the 0.1% owning an ever greater share: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/13/us-wealth-i... "Over the past three decades, the share of household wealth owned by the top 0.1% has increased from 7% to 22%."

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#250

Post by azemetre »

hintymad wrote: post #190
julianlam wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you have obscene amounts of money, your perception of what is normal goes out the window.

I thought people would have learned from Uber’s gross failure of overhiring by now and taken a few pages from Netflix’s playbook

What is Netflix doing differently? I know they had some internal struggles between different media faces (prestige content versus chasing the masses), are you referring to them paying high salaries but having a smaller workforce?
Post reply on HN