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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

#421

Post by yellowapple »

krrrh wrote: post #341
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…

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 fundi…

> Billionaires provide value as alternate sources of power to the state.

Billionaires are the state. They would not exist if the state didn't specifically provide them with the mechanisms to amass such wealth at the expense of the rest of us.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#422

Post by matwood »

eweise wrote: post #274
qbasic_forever wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can put a wealth tax on billionaires without putting taxes on poverty level workers ($500/month in the US). You're making bizarre nonsensical arguments here--slippery slope, strawman, etc.

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?

Then you can borrow against the Van Gogh for the rest of your life and likely never pay taxes. Then when you die, assuming your Van Gogh minus what you borrowed to live is less than the estate tax exemption (today it sits ~$12M or $24M if married) you can pass on the $12M/$24M to your kids federal tax free. Is that fair? IDK.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#423

Post by xapata »

smsm42 wrote: post #335
Johnny555 wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Why not btw? I mean, why is it worse for somebody to have power because he worked and invested for decades and made optimal decisions (and probably some luck) than for somebody to have power because he was born into the right family, knows all the right people in The Machine, has nice hair and is able to conceal his rampaging cocaine habit long enough to make himself too big to fail? I get that "wealth gets power" is…

> (and probably some luck)

I'd reverse the skill and luck relationship. Success at that magnitude is almost entirely luck (and probably a little skill).

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#424

Post by yellowapple »

spullara wrote: post #151
ipnon wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Billionaires are highly correlated with millionaires, which don't seem to be beyond the pale for critics of wealth inequality. Countries with billionaires rank much higher on quality of life than those without. It hurts to see Bezos and Musk in yachts but the side effect of their wealth is companies like Amazon and Tesla that have a net positive effect on society in terms of products and employment.

I'm not as wealthy as them but I have never, ever had this feeling: "It hurts to see Bezos and Musk in yachts" Why does that hurt anyone? Doesn't it just help the people that make yachts and work on them?

> Why does that hurt anyone?

Because those yachts were bought with money skimmed off our labor.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#425

Post by 99_00 »

joering2 wrote: post #86

In my opinion this is what greed does to people. Doesn't matter your background. Armstrong was here on HN pointing out his vision of free exchange of currency at close to zero rates. He wanted to fight "the big guys", including credit cards mafia and PayPal mafia. What A WONDERFUL goal. What he ended up with, is obnoxious exchange rates @ Coinbase (triple what credit cards charge), hundreds of thousands of ruined liv…

They are doing layoffs because crypto is a speculative bubble fueled by liquidity. And now that liquidity is disappearing crypto is rapidly losing value.

It's not because a person is greedy.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#426

Post by antihero »

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…

Get paid for two months to party/holiday/rest, the have another whole month (paid) to lazily job hunt in a crazy hot market and walk into the next place with a 10-30k raise. Happened to me a few times, was fucking awesome.

Lack of healthcare would have been a worry but I’m in the U.K. where we get it free.

How hard is it to fund your own US insurance on a tech salary to tide you over?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#427

Post by Sindrome »

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…

You signed an employment-at-will agreement. You have no rights.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#428

Post by Grustaf »

tomcam wrote: post #62
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…

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's a pretty long jump from banning billionaires to capping monthly salaries at 500 dollars.

Nobody makes billions by "earning more than you", they make it my owning companies, or funds, so this has nothing to do with salaries.

But the fact is that the existence of billionaires hurts everyone, especially in poor countries, but also definitely in the US. Now I'm not talking about the ethics of some people wallowing in wealth why others are starving, the biggest problem is that when you reach a certain level of wealth you can start influencing, or even controlling, public policy. This obviously has the effect that public funds are diverted away from the public into their pockets. In the third world this process is quite direct, in the rich world it's more about enacting policies that benefit these oligarchs, at the expense of everyone else.

This is a huge problem.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#429

Post by valenaut »

toephu2 wrote: post #359
weakfish wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The postal service is a marvel of efficiency

Right.. which is why it is running at a net loss? "USPS's operating revenue was $77 billion for the 2021 budget year, an increase of $3.9 billion, or 5.3%. It reported a 2020 net loss of $9.2 billion." https://www.reuters.com/business/us-postal-service-reports-4... .

Of course it runs at a loss. It’s a public service funded by taxes.

The military also “runs at a loss”—should we expect it to be profitable?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#430

Post by virissimo »

alphabetam wrote: post #395
boringg wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What glorious risk-free world do you live in? The low volatile relatively risk free last decade and a half just vanished the next 5 - 10 years is going to be a much rougher ride. 14 week severance bare minimum at a private company? That sounds very rich. [edited for better manners]

c) European.

On the other hand, unemployment is consistently higher in Europe than in the US (and wages are lower), so pick your poison.
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