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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

#341

Post by krrrh »

jerry1979 wrote: post #278
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 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…

Billionaires provide value as alternate sources of power to the state. Distributed sources of philanthropy that can target areas neglected by government are one thing (Carnegie’s libraries, Bill Gates work on tropical diseases, Frick’s art collection which he donated to the American people, alternate media and educational projects (Ford foundation’s continued funding of NPR, Soros’ Open Society Foundation, Koch funding of the Reason foundation and CATO etc, putting hyperbolic conspiracy theories aside these all enrich the political conversation and increase the opportunities for policy experimentation)). Secondly, billionaires have a good claim on being experienced and skilled deployers of capital. A wealth tax would have limited the capacity for private investment in EV, space flight, the acceleration of cloud computing.

There are two common ripostes to this. One is that these are wasteful vanity projects, which just proves the point that there is value to this sort of decentralized system of capital allocation where some small percentage of total available capital is in the hands of quixotic individuals who can pursue aims that a majority of the population doesn’t (yet) see the value of. The second objection is that these things should all be handled by the state. It’s fine for people to want space exploration to be entirely handled by NASA for instance, but the record is pretty clear that US (and by extension humanity’s) pace of space exploration has been absolutely transformed by the ability for private actors with substantial resources to make moves outside of an existing bureaucracy.

The US government spends upwards of $4T dollars a year, and the media class has a much larger influence on politics than and group of billionaires could buy. Because most billionaires are entrepreneurs they also typically look at ways they can deploy capital that are underserved and where the state would be an inappropriate actor in terms of required risk and innovation. A group of talented weirdos that have the resources to move the needle on neglected projects is a feature not a bug.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#342

Post by toephu2 »

dlp211 wrote: post #253
toephu2 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

> If you think so, then please tell me the name of one efficiently-run government organization? Please let this trope die. The US government is generally, and especially when it comes to welfare programs, efficient.

Welfare is one of the least efficient government programs in the U.S. It's rife with corruption. What makes you think it's efficient?

"It currently stands at about 25 percent, as did in the 1970s. This means the ability of the poor to sustain a higher level of income independently of transfers has not changed over time."

[1] https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/economic_b...

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#343

Post by tomcam »

flashgordon wrote: post #122
tomcam wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much money should people be allowed to have?

Ok let me take a stab at it. I actually am on the fence on this so purely a thought exercise for me. Plus as someone getting into midlife crisis this has been on top of mind for me. How about take (in no order): 1. 1 or 2 fancy cars/suvs 2. Be able to travel business class (say once a month) for vacations and stay in decent hotels 3. Nice education (say 2 degrees at a top college) 4. Nice house (say 2 rooms per famil…

Can you describe the new governmental Department of Hobby Restrictions? I study music history, transcribe old popular songs, and play many different instruments. Does this count as one hobby called music or does it count as three different hobbies?

What would be the penalty for an asshole like me having three hobbies instead of the two allowed under your plan?

Am I allowed to have one flute, or if I play professionally am I allowed to have two in case one is broken? Am I allowed to have an alto flute and a bass flute as well, or am I limited to just the garden-variety soprano flute?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#344

Post by phaistra »

kingboss wrote: post #237
elefanten wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You literally just described most of Wall Street and most of the finance industry too.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#345

Post by gammabetadelta »

Johnny555 wrote: post #301
kordlessagain wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't understand how a tax on personal wealth guts capitalism and limits a company's ability to make mad profits?

No post body was provided.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#346

Post by tschellenbach »

ausbah wrote: post #316
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…

>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. sorry but this reads like you drank the whole bowl of US corporate kool-aid. the insecurity and stress the comes from not knowing if you'll have a job tomorrow in literal insanity. 14 weeks severance shouldn't be seen an…

It does seem insane to me that healthcare is tied to employment.. that's just crazy

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#347

Post by rglullis »

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…

Why stop at 100M? Why not 50M? Why not 10M? Why not 250k?

Trying to control the amount of wealth one "should" have is misguided. We should have ways to limit the amount of power that can be concentrated. If we did that, we would have a better shot at having a more equitable society: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31317641

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#348

Post by [deleted] »

systemvoltage wrote: post #212
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…

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.…

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#349

Post by tomcam »

izzydata wrote: post #82
tomcam wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much money should people be allowed to have?

There is obviously no exact dollar amount. I don't believe everyone should have the same amount, but there should probably be some lower and upper limit. Maybe it is possible to calculate the difference between the two. Perhaps the upper limit would be 10000x that of the lower limit. Just as an example. There being a lower limit also implies some kind of universal basic income. Theoretically partially supplied by the…

There is obviously an exact upper dollar amount. You described it yourself: $1 billion.

Do you think restricting the amount of money people can make and therefore pay taxes on is a good way to pay for universal basic income? Elon Musk will famously pay something like $12 billion this year. What’s the best way to sustain welfare programs that you like without a large tax base?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#350

Post by rib3ye »

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…

By current COIN marketcap he is barely a billionaire. I figure by the end of the month and another rate hike, he will no longer qualify as a billionaire.
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