Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees • Hacker News Board

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#291

Post by kordlessagain » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 7:38 PM UTC

Johnny555 wrote: post #281

jerry1979 wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not settled on this yet. I'm from the USA, and one thing that concerns me is the geopolitics of billionaires. What happens when USA taxes billionaires out of existence? Russia and China still have billionaires. Does that do something to the power relationships in the world? Is there such a thing as "our" billionaires? The other question I have has to do with feudalism. If we let "our" billionaires exist, does tha…

Does that do something to the power relationships in the world? The fact that you're even asking that is a reason we shouldn't have billionaires -- world power relationships shouldn't be based on the wealth of individual citizens. For example, what did Musk really talk about when he met with the president of Brazil? Did he represent American interests, Amazon Inc's interests, or Elon Musk's interests?

So then you are also OK with gutting capitalism and limiting company's abilities to make mad profits? Because, you can't have one without the other.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#292

Post by corrral » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 7:38 PM UTC

jstanley wrote: post #148

SantalBlush wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then another entrepreneur who hasn't yet made $100M can start a business in the same space. If the market can bear both businesses, then they both win. If it can't, then they're in direct competition and we're still better off. This actually sounds better than what we have now: monopoly as the end goal.

Then why don't we set the cutoff at £10k instead so that the very poorest have a chance? Or set the cutoff at just above the poorest person's net worth. When they make some money they won't be the poorest any more and next year it will be updated to the new poorest person's net worth. That way we make sure everybody has a fair chance at getting rich. Or is it possible that those who have a demonstrated history of wea…

That might be a good idea!

Let's start at a hundreds-of-millions cutoff and see how it goes.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#293

Post by mrcheesebreeze » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 7:39 PM UTC

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…

there is no problem with being a billionare provided you do the near impossible and not hurt anyone to get it.

Being rich isn't criminal, being criminal to get rich is.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#294

Post by Latty » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 7:39 PM UTC

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…

There should be an exponential wealth tax past a certain point. It's absurd anyone thinks it is sane to let people amass infinite wealth, eventually it just obviously fundamentally breaks democracy.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#295

Post by foundart » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 7:40 PM UTC

cozos wrote: post #280

freyr wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds of a CEO’s tweet yesterday that software engineers making $400k+ are the real problem, and it got lots of likes. Today we day a billion is too much. Where do you draw the line (obviously, start with the billionaires and not with the workers), and who gets to decide?

Link to tweet please?

https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1536406121249796096

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#296

Post by kajecounterhack » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 7:40 PM UTC

tuckerpo wrote: post #36

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…

Anecdote: I had an old co-worker who was given 6 month's notice that he'd be let go from a previous job, and his manager at the time helped him look for a new gig + gave him shining reviews and references. After the 6 month period was up, they still gave him several months of severance, even after he had found a new gig. Some companies/managers actually do care about you, and it seems like Coinbase is roughly in that…

> Some companies/managers actually do care about you, and it seems like Coinbase is roughly in that court.

Do they really tho? They rescinded offers to many foreign students on OPT visas who had turned down Ph.D programs and such, putting them in a pickle. And they did it over email.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#297

Post by ipaddr » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 7:40 PM UTC

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…

Those are just round zeros. You could obtain that much money in some African countries over the last 50 years for a few dollars. The latest cryto coin could give you that many coins. But these are numbers trying to represent wealth.

Any cap you put on the top could have the effect of reducing the value of a currency meaning the buying power doesn't change. A billion cap would make your million dollar house worth $100. However you slice it you are poor and someone else is rich.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#298

Post by shrimpx » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 7:40 PM UTC

xur17 wrote: post #169

shrimpx wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens to the excess is what’s interesting. And if it’s in volatile assets, how do you shave off the top? E.g. your stocks go way above the limit in a bubble but then crash by 50% right after you got taxed.

The other "fun" side effect of this is that the government is slowly going to become the majority owner of every business.

Yeah. I guess that model implies that the govt will take a percent ownership of whatever you own. I think it would destroy the prospect of high risk high reward ventures like Tesla. Maybe the tax rate can be divided by a volatility metric so investors in high risk ventures aren’t severely punished randomly.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#299

Post by eweise » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 7:40 PM UTC

qbasic_forever wrote: post #290

eweise wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the wealth is in unrealized gains. How do tax that? Let's say I buy a painting for $1 and discover its a Van Gogh. Now its worth $50 million. Should I be forced to sell it to pay taxes?

We already have this issue for our existing tax system. You have to declare your income and use a huge set of tax rules and laws to determine your AGI and appropriate tax bracket. Taxing billionaires changes nothing here other than deciding once your AGI has enough zeros you get more taxes applied.

In this case there is no income so nothing to tax. Yet I would be worth $50 million and some would cry that's its unfair, which I think is silly.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#300

Post by phaistra » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 7:40 PM UTC

cute_boi wrote: post #238

evandale wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Looks like you need to look Shenanigans done by Musk, Gates etc

You should check out the shenanigans that the US government gets away with. Whatever bad things Musk, Gates and crew is small fry compared to the government.