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

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#371

Post by googlryas » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 8:10 PM UTC

yunohn wrote: post #241

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?

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

Can you explain how it is a strawman? Someone else accused it of being a strawman, but then could only claim that it is "contrived", which is not the same as a strawman.

So where's the strawman? Would the person in this scenario not be affected by a proposed wealth tax?

Also, I don't really get how it is "simping for billionaires" in the slightest. If I said that billionaires shouldn't be pulled from their mansions and lynched, am I simping for them too?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#372

Post by notyourwork » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 8:11 PM UTC

kajecounterhack wrote: post #296

tuckerpo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 They rescinded offers to many foreign students on OPT visas who had turned down Ph.D programs and such, putting them in a pickle.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.

At-will employment is "at will" of both parties.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#373

Post by tomcam » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 8:11 PM UTC

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #318

elefanten wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add social expenses -- what it takes to fit into a society or community. Add a buffer for risk and uncertainty about the future. And then consider what role location has on the whole package. If you want proximity to one of the global hubs / power centers, then you're looking at doing this all in a top-tier cost market. Then you easily push into tens of millions. Breaking a hundred million to super thoroughly check t…

Breaking into a hundred million is an absurdity given the criteria GP set.

No it’s not. Given the house prices in places like Palo Alto, Malibu, London, or Moscow, the house alone could easily be $50 million.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#374

Post by cavisne » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 8:11 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…

To pay the wealth tax you would need to reduce your ownership in the company to pay the tax until eventually you are just another minor shareholder with a leadership position (for now at least). And eventually is not long (under Warren's proposal it would be ~5 years before jeff bezos was no longer a controlling shareholder).

So the question really becomes, will the outcomes for the company be as good when no one leading it owns it or benefits directly from its success.

Sounds familiar!

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#375

Post by Johnny555 » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 8:12 PM UTC

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?

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

Why is government judged on efficiency rather than service?

If there's a government agency with money to give to vision impaired people, and they set up a website (graphics heavy, non-ADA compliant of course) as the only way to sign up for the payments, that department would be extremely efficient - they might only be able to reach a fraction of their target market, but they'd do so very efficiently with little overhead and they'd even have money left over since they had so few applicants, so they could cut the budget next year!

In contrast, if that same agency took $100M of their fund to set up offices across the country, and hire outreach staff to drive to the homes of qualified applicants to help them apply, that wouldn't be very efficient, but it would provide better service.

Government is not a business and shouldn't be run like one.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#376

Post by tomcam » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 8:12 PM UTC

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…

Should a large labor union, nonprofit, or a non-governmental organization have exactly the same voice as you?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#377

Post by danuker » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 8:12 PM UTC

spookthesunset wrote: post #130

TameAntelope wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An equally as irrational position as, "Crypto is the best thing ever!"

I mean the end state of crypto isn’t a very positive one. Either it will crash catastrophically or it will slowly fizzle out until the majority of people just forget about it. Either way, at some point virtually nobody will be using it.

As long as fiat currency keeps getting pumped out, people will want something else, more scarce, to hold their wealth in.

That could be bonds, gold, stocks, real estate, or why not crypto? Crypto is easy to transfer.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#378

Post by tomcam » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 8:13 PM UTC

izzydata wrote: post #220

philodelta wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How has your life been badly affected by someone who owns 1000 cars?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#379

Post by runarberg » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 8:13 PM UTC

Aarostotle wrote: post #288

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…

That's up to the CEO. Recognize that you — and everyone else — are relying on him to work just as hard, to take on just as much responsibility, while sacrificing more and more for every incremental dollar of value he creates . Your question implies a hope that the CEO will continue to take on massive responsibility and produce massive wealth, even when the main beneficiary of his productiveness will be the government…

This assumes that CEOs of massive heavily profitable company provide meaningful and productive contribution to the company, which is very much up for debate.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#380

Post by Arrath » Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 8:14 PM UTC

rglullis wrote: post #364

Arrath wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case we will need to decouple money from power, somehow. Starting by no longer equating giving money to politicians as an exercise in free speech would be as good a place as any to start.

There is a much easier way to do it [0], we just need to be willing to get rid of Corporativism. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31317641

"- no business entity can have more than 150 people."

How is that supposed to work with any labor intensive process?

E.g. I work on a construction project where there are over 220 field craft workers on day shift alone. Office staff and inspectors are another 100 or so. Night shift adds yet more.

Should each of those be its own business entity?